Lost in sol Viraag
by kendraleaanne
Summary: Lucy and Natsu happen upon a book created to bring Dragon Slayers and their mates together but the results of touching the ancient tome were more than any of the slayers had signed up for. Features the Pradesh Brood and all of Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers. Teleportation, OC's, Crack Ships and fluffy, steamy fun ensue. Rating will more than likely change to M.
1. Chapter 1

~Hey life's a bitch but I finally managed to get some time to post this. I hope y'all like it cause dear gods, it was actually a bunch of fun.~

Brimstone

Lucy and Natsu had been on the tail end of a simple job with a decent payout to retrieve a tome from a band of thieves for a sweet little old lady when the Fire Slayer just _touched_ the thing and _'poof',_ her troublesome pinkette partner was gone. Normally when Natsu blinked from existence, he let her know he was leaving ahead of time that way when things like this happened she wouldn't freak out but for some reason he just forgot to let her knOW AND LUCY WAS FREAKING OUT BECAUSE _NATSU WAS GONE._

Pacing around the little room they had descended into through the winding passageways of some random mine in the middle of the woods, she was trying to keep calm as best she could in the circumstances. They had just taken out the uncomfortably well-organized group of mages when she saw the book and its pristine plain black cover with what she could only assume was draconian writing embossed in gold on the bottom corner looking all pretty on a pedestal and called her Dragon Slayer partner over to take a look to see if he could read what it said when one second he was complaining about the fight being too short and the next he was gone with the book shining under one ominous spotlight in a very weirdly pitch-black room like something out of Indiana Jones. She couldn't help but have her palm connect to her forehead with a resounding _'smack'_ at the insanity she had to deal with on a regular basis that should have prompted her to connect all the foreboding clues together when they first walked into the ridiculous room.

Muttering under her breath all the while she glared at the innocent enough looking booby-trap of a book, circling around the pedestal as she waited for Laxus to answer his comm, hers sitting heavily in the palm of her hand, "I should have guessed. I should have known that something spooky-wiggy would happen. Just look at this setup. Next thing you know, I'll touch a doorknob and Natsu and I will switch bodies until we learn to appreciate one another…"

Laxus' voice was already drawn into exhausted irritation as his face held his usual look of mild disdain or as Lucy liked to call it, his 'resting murderbot face'. "If you're calling to tell me that flaming dumbass did something I'm gonna have to clean up, fucking save it, Blondie."

Her face twisted into something akin to shamed remorse at the Lightning Slayer's intuitive words as she sucked her lips between her teeth to say 'yeah, I hate to be that guy but…'.

Letting out a deep sigh, he motioned for her to go ahead anyway though he could feel the beginnings of a migraine stirring at the base of his skull only adding on to his mound of shit to deal with this week.

She thought about how to explain what had actually went down in the mine...and couldn't really articulate what happened so she just said it as plainly as she could while she stilled her pacing to give Laxus a tired shrug because honestly, she was too young for this to be easily explained beyond, "Natsu's gone."

"Thank Mavis…" was his immediate, _relieved_ , response.

Taking a deep breath after his near serious-relief at her words to send him a glare through her end of the lacrima because hello? This was the kind of top priority stuff that snowballed into wars, of which she's seen one too many in her remarkably short lifetime. "No Laxus, like he was here with me, right next to me and then he touched this... _book_ with draconian writing? symbols? I don't know, I'm not a dragon, I can't read draconian, and then he vanished from thin air. Gone. Poof. Just like that."

Her guildmaster just blinked at her with a bland neutral expression.

Letting out a growl of frustration at the lack of reaction from her Master, who should very much have _some reaction_ to the fact that one of his members blinked out of existence. Literally. She ground out through clenched teeth and clenched fist, "I'm going to give you two seconds to formulate the proper response, Laxus Dreyar."

Rolling his eyes, he offered with a droll look and an flippant wave of his hand, "Well, why don't you bring the book back here and we can find him. If that's _really_ what you wanna do." Leaving her plenty of room to decide otherwise if she wanted.

Her response was haughty and concrete. "It is and **you** are in agreement, _Master Laxus_." Drawing his name out in efforts to highlight the Lightning Dragons title and the responsibilities that came with it. Like finding missing guild members.

Reaching her hand out warily to grab the book with a shifty eyed expression in efforts to try and keep the safety of his steely-blue eyes in her direct vision while simultaneously trying to keep watch on the book as if it would poison her for not being a dragon and/or make her disappear completely and also be ready for spikes to shoot out from below her feet or a cage to fall from above and trap her here forever, she spoke with obvious remorse at her jump to accepting the 'just grab the book and come home' plan seeing as the book was definitely the source of her Natsu-related problems, "And I swear to Mavis herself, if I disappear and this is some long, drawn out evil plot I will not hesitate to rip your balls-"

And just like that, the small smooth communication lacrima fell to the stone floor and shattered without a body to hold it up. The sound echoed through the empty room as the tome they had been sent to retrieve disappeared slowly from under the bright spotlight.

Back in Magnolia, Laxus let out an involuntary growl as he watched her end of the comms conversation go black before trying to call her back repeatedly only to have his comm sit uselessly in his palm before he chucked the innocent stone-like object across his office and burst through the door of his second-floor dungeon with the ferocity of a caged beast finally free, his deep baritone bellowing down to the main guildhall, "I need all the information about Blondie's job, _now_ ," before his eyes fell on the blue-head of hair that marked the Solid Script's tiny frame, "You, _bookgirl_ , you're coming with me and bring the rust bucket with you."

Narrowing her eyes at his nickname for her when he very well knew her name, Levy turned to the Iron Dragon fast asleep next to her and gave his stomach a smack to wake him up, the feet of his chair slamming down at the rude awakening. Her voice was tinged with irritation as she grumbled contemptuously and packed away her books, "Get up. Master Laxus needs us to go with him and I mean, it's not like we were doing anything anyway. No, not me. I wasn't in the middle of an easy translations job that paid bank."

Utterly confused at both the tiny mage's ire towards him and her angry sarcasm, he growled back, "Oi, what the hell do ya think you're doin', woman!"

The angry glare she sent him easily shut him up with an angry sneer of his own fixed firmly his face before following her to where Laxus was speaking with Mira at the bar with lightning sparking from his frame enough to create a static field around him so intense, it made a nice chunk of Magnolia as whole channel their inner bride of Frankenstein from the effects his magic had on hair, much to the annoyance and chagrin of everyone within three miles of the Lightning Slayer whose thoughts focused solely on the blonde woman adept in handling the more delicate parts of his guild. The parts that he needed running smoothly in order to keep from mass murder.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Sting had been in the middle of puzzling through the horrifying loopy, slanted, _cursive_ handwriting of Sabertooth's Memory Make Mage when a thick black book appeared on the sill of his window overlooking the breathtaking view of the mountain range Sabertooth guild hall had been nestled neatly into.

Raising a curious brow at the book, his head swiveled around the room to try and see if anyone had accompanied the unwelcome addition to his office before squinting his bright blue eyes and calling out for Rogue as he started moving from his spot at his desk to slither over to the windowsill, his hands walking the edge of his desk as he went. Books were decidedly Rogue's domain. Right up there with capes and brooding.

After waiting a beat for his partner to respond and getting no answer, he called again from his contemplative stance looming over the thick book without lifting his clear eyes from it, this time much louder and some might even describe it as shrill and _awful_.

Letting out an impatient huff at the Shadow Slayer's continued lack of response, he moved to pick up the book to see if he could find his shadowy counterpart only to disappear completely the instant he brushed the smooth leather of the cover, the book staying neatly at its perch against the glass of the window, waiting.

Having heard the cries of her Master since near everyone this side of the mountain heard his girly squealing, one of the new additions to Sabertooth had knocked on his door, her voice a forced sort of cheery that was totally out of character for the usually acerbic Corrosion Mage but she had just gotten bitched at about being 'a killjoy' and 'a bully' from both Orga and Rogue so she had to at least put _some_ effort into being slightly less venomous than usual. "Master Sting? I heard you shrieking like a banshee for Rogue but, he's not here. No one knows where he went so can I be of any assistance?"

She waited a solid ten seconds before knocking again and losing the false cheer from the alto of her voice, sarcasm and reluctance taking over in her usual manner of speaking, "If I open this door and you're any type of of nude, I will melt your dick off, Master or not. Once was one too many times and you've scarred me on four separate occasions." Her hands shooting out as she shook her head to convey how much _**'no'**_ she was trying to get across. " _ **Four. Separate. Times.**_ "

When again she was met with silence, her brows furrowed and she bravely opened the door to find the office completely devoid of the overzealous and slightly dim-witted blond she had to call Master.

"Master Sting? Are you...still in here?"

Her eyes, both the yellow color of a felines except her right eye held the toxic symbol instead of a circular pupil, immediately looked up from beneath the usual unkempt lime green of her fringe, her silvery-grey roots standing out with the messy way she always tied her hair into buns low on the back of each side of her head, like she was expecting the wild blond moron to drop down from the ceiling in ambush. She backed up just a step, the high platform of her matte leather boots caught on a floorboard before catching herself with wide eyes to see if anyone had seen her near tumble. Her voice took a blatant threatening edge as she grew increasingly irritated with the White Dragon Slayer, "Seriously. If you pop out from anywhere right now, I'll do it. You'll live the rest of your life as a eunuch," before she noticed the one thing that definitely did not belong anywhere near the Master's office; a book.

Ever wary of the possibility of a sneak attack, she sidestepped her way along the wall to the windowsill, taking note of the unusual golden symbol in the corner before moving to open the cover only to meet the same fate as her guildmaster and his Shadow Slayer counterpart.

Having finished its work high in the mountains overlooking the desert of Fiore, it returned to its pedestal to wait for the next victim to fall into the ancient magics at work.

It had taken the trio of Fairy Tail mages exactly nine hours, 37 minutes and seven seconds to get to the little blip of a town Lucy and Natsu had been sent to on their mission. Laxus would know. He counted every miserable second on the train with the whiniest pussy of a dragon slayer in existence now that Lucy tamed the firefuck to be a purring kitten of himself for the entirety of the rides they took with or without Wendy's help. Unfortunately for them, Wendy had already taken a job with her mate and one of the strongest mages he's seen outside of the Dragon Slayer's, a Combustion Mage named Kekoa, and she couldn't help either of them with their motion sickness before they left.

And bookgirl pulled down the folding table in huff the instant they picked a cabin, pulled out four separate books each with a near slam and a notebook before putting on a pair of gale force glasses, taking a moment to shoot him a cutting glare and getting to work in silent but tangible annoyance.

At least when he rode with his team, he had entertainment. Something to distract him from the time when he couldn't sleep.

When the hulking blond knocked on the door of the address the job sent the doomed duo with no response, Gajeel let him know he didn't hear any heartbeats coming from the little hovel of a cottage but he could still smell the disgusting brimstone and burning sulphur smell that always lingered after Natsu used his magic to prompt the three to follow the Iron Slayers nose in the hopes of finding their missing nakama.

All the way to a sketchy mine that looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Standing in front of the opening, staring at the rickety at best woodwork of it, Laxus threw back over his shoulder with no effort into turning his head towards the blue-haired pixie mage to speak plainly, "I don't know if you want to follow us down into that, bookgirl." His intention to save her from the potential of a cave in though it wasn't received that way.

Giving a huff from a good ten yards behind the two oafs, she pulled her hairband down over her eyes to try and fix the mess of twigs and leaves in her hair from the hike here, her tone once again laced with indignant annoyance at the lack of use of her name from the guy she's literally spent almost all her life sharing the same guild that _he was now master of_. "Why? Because I'm 'bookgirl'? That's a load of _bul-_ "

Then silence. Abrupt, resounding silence and Laxus was left to stare upwards with one question on his mind: why.

Turning to see what cut off her one of her infamously long-winded tirades, Gajeel bared his teeth as a gut reaction to Levy's persons being completely gone from his span of vision and all hints of her gone from his other senses to come to one illogical conclusion. "Someone took Shrimp."

Without turning around, Laxus ran a heavy hand down his face because honestly, he just couldn't catch a break before motioning for the jumpy lugnut to follow him into the maze of charred hallways from Natsu's magic. "Bet you half a million that fucking book is down here and with what little I got from Blondie before **she** disappeared, that's what'll stop all this weird shit and get everyone back where they fucking belong."

"Tch, fuck that," rolling his shoulders to shake off the bad vibes this whole place was putting out in droves, "I ain't losin' my jewel over somethin' stupid and ya better be right 'bout Shrimp. I ain't dealin' with her shit if ya lost her somewhere shitty." Because Levy McGarden was a force to be reckoned with and Gajeel has done enough reckoning for a lifetime of lifetimes.

And that was all the exchange of words the two unsociable dragons needed before the eerie silence of the tunnels was filled only with the sounds of the heavy steps of their boots just out of synch with each other to create an ominous false echo while Laxus gave every pristine torch they passed a sideways suspicious glance because they looked like they had just been lit recently and he felt no magic coming from them. He didn't feel _anything_ except the rapidly lowering temperature while they made their way deeper into the ground.

When Gajeel finally put enough pep in his step to have their gait fall in synch to the Lightning Slayer's relief only to take another three steps, pause, realize there was no one behind him to echo his footsteps and let out a growl of a yell while trying to keep his rapidly degrading sanity in check, Laxus lost it. "What in the flying FUCK IS GOING ON WITH MY MAGES?!"

Four. Four of his mages have vanished. Two of them Dragon Slayers and two of them not in another suspiciously matchy-pairy magical bullshit way that was seriously going to grey his hair already. As much as he liked to say he was worried about being down two of his heaviest hitting mages, it was Blondie and...bookgirl his thoughts were centered around. If this book was really related to dragons somehow, what in the fuck did those two have to do with anything.

That and he really did not want to deal with all the shit from the guild without the brilliant Celestial Mage. He wouldn't tell her that or she'd get even more smug than she already was. She smoothed over his incapability of playing well with others to the point they rarely got the worse end of any situation they found themselves in regardless of him dispising nearly everyone outside of Fairy Tail. Something that he really didn't care to fix since he just had a low tolerance for stupidity and people that wasted his time with unnecessary bullshit.

Wasting his time like travelling across Fiore with a very specific pair of mages with a very specific set of skills that would be perfect to go get a book with draconian writing on it only to have them _fucking disappear_ when they arrived at their destination. That was the kind of shit that really rubbed him the wrong way.

Aggravated passed the point of caution, Laxus channeled his lightning to flashstep to the room he last saw Lucy, her comm in pieces scattered across the floor to catch the single source of light to reflect it back at him in blinding flashes before stepping further in to look over the cover of the book and the writing in the corner.

His only option now that he lost both his translators with him was to try and get the book back to Magnolia somehow since the piece of dragon soul allowed him to confirm Lucy's original guess the gold markings were draconian but didn't give him the ability to magically understand the language, he needed to bring the damned thing with him. You needed an actual dragon with their own dialect of draconian to learn from and Laxus hadn't seen any flying around to ask one of them to come on down and teach him.

Unwilling to touch the cursed book, the Lightning Slayer shrugged off his coat with a silent prayer to anyone listening to keep it in one piece as he carefully wrapped tome up in the thick material before letting out the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding until the relief from it nearly burned his lungs more than the time Bickslow insisted he try surfing and a 'rogue wave' pulled him under. That's totally what happened...rogue wave…right off the shore.

Confident that he wasn't going to vanish with the book tucked safely beneath his arm, the hulking blond took one more good look around the pristine room aside from the shards of opalescent lacrima from Lucy's departure before pushing the limits of his magic with a tunnel vision set on the guild hall to get some answers from one of his other dragons. Granted they also hadn't disappeared yet.

Instead of going back through the front doors, Laxus had a small balcony built off the Master's office so he could have a safe place to land when he used his magic to travel. It doubled as a means of avoiding being hounded by the hovering, nagging mages of his guild and the media that loved them so much. A good thing to be sure, but not in regards to him specifically as a human who did not handle pests well.

The instant he touched down, a charred circle marked the thick enchanted planks before he opened the set of double french doors and tossed the book safely tucked in the folds of his coat on his desk just as he made a beeline for the private bathroom just off his office. The totally rebuilt guild hall boasted all sorts of fun new additions since the near total rebuilding of Magnolia and he happened to have gotten his choice of layout as the new Guildmaster.

Standing in front of the mirror with his palms on the edge of the cool stone of the sink, the oldest Dragon Slayer took in the changes the years paid him that he really hadn't the mind to pay any attention to. He knew he was attractive and he didn't really have need to look in a mirror with the new haircut both Lucy and Mira insisted he try out when he first became Master years ago in efforts to improve his image and show that he wasn't the same aggressively arrogant, misguided asshole from before. It was a pretty basic undercut, the top of his blond spikey hair longer than subtle fade of his sides save for the tuft of hair that always seemed to fall forward in his eyes now that it was a much thicker and longer patch of hair he had to slick back if he needed to do Master-type shit and while he worked out or it would fall in his face and piss him off. It was a good look for him but it required a mirror and effort. Something he just didn't have time for most days.

Aside from his hair and the addition of different colors to his wardrobe (Again, at the insistence of Lucy and Mira), there wasn't much difference to the way he looked even though he was in the beginning years of his thirties except maybe a few new scars. No, most of his changes were things you couldn't see and that was also for the better since he had a very 'don't fix what isn't broken' casual attitude about his looks.

In addition to being a relatively successful guildmaster in those years, he earned both the title of Wizard Saint and a rightful place as the fourth God of Ishgar, right behind Bickslow's older brother and Guildmaster of the White Sea over in Bosco.

An unreadable look crossed his face as he remembered as if for the first time that the Pradesh family alone held two both the Lunar and the Solar Dragon Slayers.

" **Fuck**."

The Lightning Slayer reached in his pocket to give Kaleb a call to let him know what was going on with his mages and hopefully bring in another guild of capable mages to try and help him out only to realize his comm wasn't on him.

Letting out another sharp expletive, he went back out to his office to look for the damned tiny lacrima with a grouchy air about him so thick Cobra actually said something to Mira about the lack of Iron Slayer and Script Mage who then immediately sent Bickslow up to his office to check in on him after losing another pair of his mages without having brought back Lucy or Natsu.

When the Seith Mage opened the door and found Laxus Dreyar on his hands and knees searching the floor while glaring daggers into the floorboards, he was mildly concerned and mostly entertained with the sight unfolding in front of his eyes. Laxus was a 6'4 brick house of a man and he did not crawl around on the floor no matter what the circumstances so while Bickslow could appreciate this was more than likely serious, he also could appreciate the fact that this was once in a lifetime and one of the funniest things he's seen in a very long time. Aside from the genius Natsu and Gray spin the bottle incident, that is.

From where Laxus had bent in front of the plush black leather couch to try and find where his comm landed when he chucked it after Lucy went missing, he knew his best friend had leaned his towering frame back on the door and the Lightning Mage was less than amused by the spectating.

Wrapping his fingers around the bottom of his couch and lifting it with ease, his eye darted over to meet the concentric circles of spiraling red with a look that Bickslow knew extremely well to gruff out while he inspected the space underneath the sofa. A pang of unwanted emotion hit him when he took in the dust already gathering from the last time Lucy did a clean sweep of his office. She had this insistence that as Master, his workspace needed to reflect his work and often came through weilding spray bottles and mops to have his office sparkle.

"Iron Dick and bookgirl are gone and I'm trying to find my comm to call your brother and get some answers. I have nothing but that damned book and I'm not about to touch that mother fucker," stopping his search only to shove his idiot best friend from his obvious line for the couch as if he was about to plop down on the half-raised furniture, "So how about you look over there and try not to disappear."

Raising both his hands in surrender with a jovial cackle on his lips, Bickslow turned to check the opposite side of the room before seeing his balled up coat and moving to check the pocket on the inside where he knew the Lightning Slayer often kept the comm despite never remembering he even had pockets along the inside. His voice was its usual teasing playful drawl as his hands wrapped around the familiar fur trim, "First of all, I'm pretty sure you mean Levy. I don't know why you can't remember her name and look for what?"

"My comm."

Letting his tongue loll out before jeering, "You know, we should get you one of those things senile people put on their glasses to kept themselves from losing them except make it into a little necklace for you. We can put little lightning bolts on it for you too," and knowing Laxus often liked to keep his things hidden away in the many pockets inside his coat, Bix crossed the room to look for the comm there first.

Dropping the couch with more force than necessary out of annoyance, Laxus let out a grunt before getting up to tell his smartass teammate where he could shove his old man bullshit only to watch as Bickslow lifted his jacket by the collar and the book fall out in a thud on the floor just shy of touching the boisterous man smiling at him like a maniac.

Letting out yet another breath of relief at the Seith's continued presence, Laxus opened his mouth to warn him not to touch the book when Bickslow's eyes glowed and the book floated up just in front of his face and before his lightning could put the idiot out of consciousness, his finger grazed the gold embossing before poofing out of existence _with_ the book.

Blinking once, twice before turning to ask Mira for her comm with a raging fire in his belly and migraine the size of Pergrande. He only made it to the door before he heard a thud from behind. A thud he really hoped had nothing to that forsaken book. He just wanted his nakama back in their guild where they belonged and he really just wanted a drink of chilly beer in a frosted mug when they were.

Glancing back over his shoulder at the source of the thud, he saw it. There in the middle of his desk, propped up as if it were on display was the book. Same plain black leather cover. Same golden draconian in the corner. Same bullshit with this weird magical book.

Turning to face the damned thing, he almost wanted to run and grab Freed from the job he had taken along the coast because if anyone was going to know anything about this insanity, it would be the Rune Mage. But then again, if Freed also disappeared he would sort of be shit out of luck.

Irrational thought had started taking over and it was just the opportunity his dragon had been waiting for. The dragon part of his soul was growing restless with his solitude and longed for a mate no matter how hard the bigger part of his soul tried to tamp it down. It was still a part of him and that part of him was even more ruthless and cunning being pushed this close to the edge. It wasn't like Laxus was _forcing_ it down because he didn't want a mate. He just didn't actively search for them and his dragon knew his mate was out there.

It didn't matter now though. All his dragon was telling him now was to read the book and at this point, he was more inclined to finding out where his family went by means of the only way he knew how to get there and working on getting them all home once he got to them.

Stomping across the room with a near crazed look in his eye, he charged up a blow that would without a doubt destroy the fragile binding of the book and swung with all the force he could muster before connecting and plummeting into total darkness.

* * *

~WHO DOESN'T LOVE THE SET UP? haha no but for reals, I had a blast with this so like hey-o, let me know what y'all are thinking.

I've desperately missed writing and hearing what you lovely humans have to say so please let me know ^.^ ~


	2. Chapter 2

~ I just wanted to say that you guys are absolutely the best and I'm so thankful for your patience. Seriously. _THANK YOU_. Okay okay how about we get to some crack pairings. I'm bumping the rating up for language for now. ~

* * *

Cristoff Pradesh was in the middle of enjoying a masterful blowjob by a willowy redhead with a pout the exact color of the wine they'd been drinking when suddenly he was literally plunged into pitch black nothing to fall the short distance of what felt like a foot and a half to land on his bare ass on stone that felt more like blocks of ice than anything else. Of course that could just be the nudity talking. In any case, he was naked, alone and incredibly unhappy about his current unknown whereabouts.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any time to make heads or tails of anything before the weight of someone new slammed directly into his body from above just as he was about to get up.

After recovering from the blow to his manhood that served as a cushion for his new friend straddling his waist as they let out a masculine grunt of their own from the impact where their knees his stone, Cristoff barely had to think about his reaction. On instinct, his hands braced the smallish man's toned hips as his dragon instantly labelled this stranger his mate. Without his sight to help him, there were a few things he could discern from the weight settled neatly on his pelvis; one, his mate was without a doubt a man and one much smaller than him by way the bulk of him nestled just where his dragon (and the Lunar Slayer himself) most wanted him; two, he smelled like woodsmoke, and earthy spices and just faintly of brimstone enough to give it a nip of a finish. A naturally heady and intoxicating scent that filled his head with the hazy swirling smoke of his mate in dizzying, exhilarating ways; and three, very decidedly was this person on top of him not freaking out about the pitch black strange place they found themselves in at. From where Cristoff's hands were resting, one low on his mate's hip and the other gently kneading the hard muscle of his thigh soothingly, he could tell this person was totally relaxed if a little squirmy which did nothing for his half hardened member and everything for the Lunar Slayers opinion of his newfound mate. Anyone with a level head enough to stay calm in this situation must have impeccable control over their emotions.

The calloused palms of his mate's fevered hands were roving over the ridges and valleys of his chest and abs with an explorative curious touch that ignited a more playful urge within himself to run _his_ hands up _his_ mate's chest to start mapping all the edges of _his_ body before an excited rich timbre sounded through what sounded like a small barren room by the way his mate's voice echoed off the walls. "Luce isn't gonna believe this! Igneel always said it would be hard to find my mate but here you are and you feel like you hit like a brick," pausing his excited chatter to grope Cristoffs arms shamelessly, "and Luce _loooooves_ tall muscly guys. She's gonna be so jealous."

Natsu was ecstatic his dragon had immediately claimed whoever the Laxus sized man that smelled like a cool night breeze in winter, minty almost, as his mate. His father told him from a very young age that his dragon would recognize the soul made as his other half, his missing piece, immediately so he had no need to worry about anything romantic or sexual until he found them. Why waste time on people that weren't fated to be your mate when you know you had one out there anyway sort of simple, if overly so, mentality about intimacy. And really, it was sort of hard to compete with someone made to be his perfect equal in battle and in life to make up for the things he lacked. Someone to act as a perfect balance to his hard to contain nature. If he were Lucy, he might have daydreamed about who his mate would be or what they would look like but he had total trust in the draconian higher powers that be so regardless of gender, build, hair color, his mate was his and that was that. He'd rather light something on fire than have to worry about it anyway so it really worked out well for him.

As if he had just said the magic words, the torches around the minuscule room started sparking up at a near agonizingly slow pace. Both their enhanced senses were straining against the dim light to get the first look at the person they would spend the rest of their lives with. The Fire Slayer was vibrating with excitement on top of his mate who was desperately trying to focus passed how good it felt on his now fully hardened and ready to mate member with only the thin material of Natsu's pants keeping them apart. Barely enough light shined for Cristoff to see the blurred outline of Natsu's body but nothing else, the Lunar Slayer's heartbeat quickened with anticipation. He had been waiting his whole life for this moment, getting out to the far reaches of Ishgar to try and meet his mate but none stuck. All he wanted was someone to really share a life with and here he was in all his, squinting his eyes then widening them to try and speed the process up with no effect, blobbish shadowy glory.

Natsu was well aware the reason the pit in stomach suddenly ignited had everything to do with the friction between them and at first, it was an unintentional side effect of his elation but when he felt the tips of his mates fingers dig into his muscle just enough of a change to notice, his hips started grinding down. He wondered if his mate was the sort of mate who liked to nest in an absent thought about how the man underneath him was going to be _the best_ for cuddling.

As the lights continued to brighten, more and more bronze skin shined exposed for the Lunar Slayer from the sensuous firelight reveal and he had to clench his jaw to keep his fangs in check, swallowing a moan from deep in his chest at the way his mates hips were rolling back and forth. When the his sharp features came to focus, Cristoff couldn't help but make the comparison of his mates angular features to his dragons, Nurem and her mate of centuries, Draco. Wild determination and fire burned in the slate green depths of his sharp predatory gaze that promised more of laughter than pain. One thing standing out in the forefront of his mind as he took the man in: his mate was _**hot**_. In more ways than just the unusual feeling of having the top of your body feel like its laying facedown in a pool of lava and bottom half feels like its 20,000 leagues below the sea just on the cusp of tingly cold numbness. Lithe compact body blanketed in capable dense muscle, unruly tufts of pink hair sticking out wildly in every direction as his expressive eyes shined with near childlike delight but what really caught the Lunar Slayer's attention was the wide, uninhibited toothy grin fixed on his boyish face. That is until his magic started tuning into emotions and he could feel without a doubt that this pinkette was completely at ease in himself. No doubts. No fear. Just...toothy grins and rough wandering hands.

Looking down at the naked man below him, Natsu stilled for the first time since falling in sol Viraag. His mate was a _beast_. Broad shoulders built with muscle earned from years of training, bigger than even Laxus' set neatly on top of a sturdy middle with tanned abs that lead to the dark trail of hair disappearing beneath the dark fabric of his pants. His dark hair was loose around his smiling face and his next irrational thought was of how cute their hatchlings would be.

Cristoff let out soothing chuckles as his he leaned up on one elbow to run his thumb along a pretty nasty scar just starting to fade running down the eager mage's right cheek. His fanged ball of energy leaned into the touch without hesitation and nearly like a cat in a purely draconic move. This Dragon Slayer was deeply in tune with his dragon soul on a basic level of his being. Just that adorable motion made all the waiting he did worthwhile though and his fireball didn't even seem to make much of it like they had been doing it their whole life despite having met literal minutes ago. "Did you want to know my name first or are you okay with taking advantage of a naked man while he's down for a bit because it's totally up to you, hon." A gentle smile of his own taking over his face as his fingers started running through the deceivingly soft tufts of salmon hair to pull warm purrs from the smaller mage. His dragon was _rumbling_ from the satisfaction and pride at how easy it was for the two of them to be like this. He had years of thrilling first dates and passionate one-night stands but he never had someone he could just fall in love with. Now he had someone to share his life with and his mate seemed all the more pumped about it than he was.

That sweet moment lasted about five seconds before Natsu nearly plowed Cristoff over in an unrestrained show of affection that could have been a hug if you counted tackling someone a hug before grabbing his set of bulky shoulders to lift his body to hover just over his mate's face and proudly introduce himself, the fire in his eyes bright enough to match the fire in his spirit as they searched the deep blue of Cristoff's silver-flecked eyes for anything and everything about him with a hunger that stirred more than just his dragon soul. "Natsu Dragneel, Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail."

A knowing smirk crossed the Boscan's face as he answered while his brain churned out all the different stories attached to that name in particular even all the way in Bosco without Bickslow having to regale them with the wild true stories of his guild as a whole. "Cristoff Pradesh, Lunar Dragon Slayer of the White Sea."

The instant Natsu's one-track mind heard the words 'dragon slayer', his ignited fist shot into the air like he had just won the grand prize of a game show because in Natsu's brain he had won something _far_ better; a dragon for a mate. Better yet, a male dragon.

Not that Natsu would have had a problem with a female mate, he just spent a lot of time with girls and they really just seemed crazy to him. Female dragons were even worse than that and he took way too many cheap shots on account of his inability to make it through the maze of traps and terrifying monsters that was a whole other part of the gender scale without upsetting someone or saying the wrong thing anyway. He was tired of getting hit all the time. Fairy Tail as a whole actually got extremely lucky Wendy found her mate first because the youngest slayer could have easily releveled Magnolia if she happened to be in the wrong place when her first heat kicked in. But Lucy had brought Kekoa home after a hilariously one-sided conversation with the Council about taking the troubled youth off their hands since they had their hands full with rebuilding the Council itself back up after the war. Natsu actually had quite the soft spot for the Combustion Mage and his delicious little firecracker magic but there was no way he could have dealt with the Sky Maiden's wrath if they hadn't mated when they did. She learned from Luce and Luce was scary on her best day when it came to lady business.

No, the Fire Dragon would much rather deal with testosterone and a dick than estrogen and mood whiplash. He knew what to do with testosterone and a dick.

Cristoff watched in rapt fascination as an array of emotion crossed Natsu's face in the minute span of five seconds. Unadulterated joy, a flash of near greedy hunger, the cusp of a thoughtful look that melted into a shuttering look of remembrance before ending in a fierce cross between rage and realization. It was intense and all-consuming the way he wore his feelings before the pinkette's brows furrowed just slightly, his voice a low growl as his predatory eyes scanned the low light of the room around them, "We have to find Luce. She should be here but I can't smell her."

Giving a far too casual nod at the change in mood and topic, the naked slayer asked as his eyes darted upward around the pair still connected in a very intimate way that was also being taken in stride far too casually for normal humans. "Where is here exactly?"

As if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Natsu continued his shifty eyed movements but explained with a ghost of his usual exuberance as if distracted by a noise only he could hear. There wasn't any noise, he was just worried about his partner. "We're in sol Viraag, or a piece of it at least."

Giving a much slower nod of his head, the blue of Cristoff's eyes did their own quick assessment of the room before landing back on his mate. The Lunar Slayer had no idea what sol Viraag was in the slightest. After a few beats of quiet filled only with their steady breaths, he finally spoke up. "And where is sol Viraag, might I ask." The larger of the two was having trouble keeping his hands to himself and rightly so. Not so deep down, the big guy was a romantic and all he ever wanted was to finally meet his mate. Now that he had a mate, he really wanted to get somewhere private to claim the spitfire and be claimed since he had the incredible luck of being mated to another Dragon Slayer. He probably couldn't do that stuck in 'sol Viraag' or more accurately _shouldn't_ do that while stuck here.

"Hmm? Oh, it's a piece of time suspended by the fates for dragons and their mates." An even, no nonsense statement to serve as explanation. The whole explanation to be given. Just like that. Like Natsu had just explained everything possible, he gave Cristoff another of his winning smiles before giving the bulky Boscan's shoulder a few pats and getting up to find a way out of their private little section of time-space so he could find his best friend and make sure she was alright. His dragon recognized her as someone's mate but not his and if she or her mate touched the book, they would both be taken here as well. It's just a matter of breaking through the walls and demolition was a specialty of his.

Cristoff couldn't help but feel a pang in his chest that somehow between the two dragons he's had in his life, one of them should have mentioned this sol Viraag to him as he sat back to watch his mate work at breaking through the stone wall with a fire of his own burning in his deep blue eyes.

XxXxxXxXxxXxX

Lucy hated the dark, hated being cold and just this one time, really hated being right. She knew she should have told Laxus to just come to her and then _he_ could have touched the book and been swept away and plummeted into the pitch black space she was currently trapped in. It would have been better if Natsu had at least been here when she landed but after calling to him with no success, she started looking for a door.

By the time she made her third pass around the tiny square room, the little Fairy had started to get a little discouraged about getting out of said tiny room since there was absolutely no openings anywhere on the wall but quickly found herself with a splitting grin as she tucked her hair behind her ear and pressed it to the cool stone of the wall. She recognized the sound of fireballs exploding against stone structures anyday.

Natsu was here and that was all the reassurance she needed.

Backing away from the wall as best she could in the pitch black to get away from the point of impact, she covered her head with her hands and waited for him to break through the stone and get her out of there.

Lifting her head with a wave of her hand to clear the dust from her face, she took in the outline of her best friend and barrelled full force into him in a hug meant to squeeze all her worry out in the form of warm affection before she pulled back and started shaking his shoulders so hard, Natsu's neck felt like rubber. The lilt of her words spoke of her experience in dealing with the subject at hand. "I was so **worried** about you, Natsu! And I called Laxus, that good for nothing overcharged outlet, to see about getting you back and he told me to just grab the book even though I _knew_ wiggy stuff was gonna go down if I did and would you look at that," stopping her shaking to meet his uneasy gaze with a dead look in her eye that should have worried someone, "we've been teleported to magical realm of cube rooms and mole people." The dark was _really_ not her favorite.

Chuckling at how her imaginative humor developed over years of bad things happening to their nakama, he shook his head and answered with the same definitative nature he spoke with before on the subject. "No mole people here, you weirdo. This is sol Viraag. Maybe just a piece of it." He shrugged from beneath her hands.

"Uh..huh." It was bland and coupled with a nod from the Celestial Mage as if understanding his words before she gave up and put her hand on her cocked hip in concession. "Okay I give. What's sol Viraag," flashing her wide molten chocolate eyes up to Cristoff hovering just behind her partner with far too little interest than expected from the Lunar Slayer, "and who is your beefy bodyguard?"

Explaining for a second time that sol Viraag was a special realm set aside for dragons and their mates before Lucy pointed a finger hotly into his chest and started blaming him for all this. For bringing her here. For this places whole existence. For anything she could because this was actually crazy. This was _actually crazy_.

Swinging his thumb over his shoulder to point to Cristoff who gave a friendly wave and kind smile on cue, Natsu spoke in a casual carefree manner that only served to worsen Lucy's mood. "Noo, _he's_ here cause of me. You brought _her_ here so hah! Now you're an idiot too." Natsu looked entirely too proud of himself after that statement that by default linked himself in the category as well.

Swiveling her head at the information that she wasn't alone in her prison cell to see who she had just shared said 14 by 14 cell without her knowledge, she was immediately struck in awe by how beautiful and _tall_ the stranger was. This woman looked more like an exotic goddess on holiday than a creepy stranger lurking in dark corners of a compact underground cell.

Even more surprising than that, the beefy model of a dark-haired prince behind Natsu called out excitedly as he eyed the two blonde babes in front of him with a cheerful smile like long time friends. "Zadi! How pumped will dad be when we both come home mated?"

Having been relaxing after a particularly bloody mission when Lucy touched the book, Emzadi Pradesh was wearing little more than a high neck crochet halter top that covered her toned fit body little and a swath of breezy cotton tied around her hips to fall in layers around her golden tan towering frame, the bright yellow tie-dye fabric kissing the tops of the stone floor as she walked towards them all megawatt smiles and brilliant orange eyes.

Lucy had the stray thought that this Zadi was the sun incarnate with the way it almost hurt to look at her while dazed and utterly distracted by her bodies instant reaction to seeing the powerful mage. Arousal. That had never happened before with another girl without some sort of alcohol or Cana involved.

"Daddy dearest will be hearing the pitter patter of four-legged feet before you know it." Trying to imply that Cristoff being mated to a handsome Slayer and she being mated to the bombshell of a blonde with stars in her eyes would hinder the process of Arman Pradesh getting anymore grandchildren than Farron and Hisui had already popped out.

Without hesitation, Cristoff met her teasing with rich laughter as Lucy's eyes widened the size of dinner platters as Emzadi sauntered directly over to her side and wrapped an arm around her hip in a way that felt all too possessive and casual for not knowing each other's names. She grinned down at her, flashing the shiny gold capped points of her fangs drawing shivers from the small blonde struck mute at the natural sultry quality to her fiery gaze. The closeness and the warmth produced as a result was enough to have Lucy blink through any surprise she had and sink into the heat without a second thought if it meant easing the cold from her exposed skin. Her cute dark blue halter top half charred from a reflected attack of Natsu's and the short white pleated skirt doing nothing to ward off the deep chill seeping from the stones but the soft contented sigh that left her lips spoke little of the massive relief she felt at the simple warm contact.

The easy baritone of Natsu's mate sounded teasing, brotherly. "Come on sis, you know it'll take more than a little biological incompatibility to keep him from earning his army of grandbabies."

The Celestial beauty missed Emzadi's response as her brain backpedalled all the back to word 'mate' before taking in the doting look on the man currently sporting her best friends scarf as a makeshift skirt of sorts, the downright creepy look on Natsu's face in return, the fact that the goddess of the sun was tracing looping patterns over her hip from under the material of what was left of her shirt with her thumb in maddening ways and the fact that of the four mages present, only one combo left them infertile.

"Wait wait wait, am I getting this right? You two," splitting her index finger from her middle to point at the two unsuspecting males looking over at her after sharing a glance that looked far more casual that should be since she had never seen the towering prince charming of a character beside him before in her life, "are mates and we," curling her middle finger down to point between she and the bouncy beauty currently heating up both inside and outside of her curvy body, "are mates."

Natsu was giving his head fervent nods as Cristoff noted the disbelief in her voice. The two males at total odds with one another in mannerism and the way they carried themselves.

Thankfully, Emzadi was already giving herself a proper introduction to ease the confusion flowing from her mate's short frame. Emzadi made note to tell her mate how much she loved her short curvy frame. "My name's Emzadi and you, my sweet sunshine, are going to be mated to the Solar Dragon Slayer. No more dark chilly nights for you." Taking the hand that wasn't already wrapped around her hip to touch the end of her nose with a beaming smile on her face.

No wonder she was so bold and confident. As if being a dragon slayer in it of itself wasn't enough, her element was literally the sun itself. Of course right now all Lucy could focus on was the way the pretty Solar Slayer called her 'sunshine' and the warmth flooding her stomach at the prospect of getting to spend the rest of her life hearing the easy lilt of it.

In a dreamy sigh, she breathed out, "It's really nice to meet you, Emzadi. I'm Lucy, uh, Celestial Summoner Mage." Her own easy nature making the news simple to take in stride. She spent all of her adult life handling the dragon-ist dragon slayer there was; the prospect of being mated to one wasn't all that daunting. Lucy rather like the romance that came with draconian customs.

In a flash, the shortest mage of them was being suffocated in a massive chest that matched her own for size and cushion as Emzadi's sultry hooded eyes shined with cunning victory Lucy had no idea what about. "Ha _ha!_ I knew I'd snag one before Zen could. How excited do you think he'll be to have one to practice on. Come on, brother, give me my glory. I've earned it." Her face eager as she waited for her brothers reply, content to cuddle her little mate in the meantime. Confused but definitely aroused, Lucy finally lowered her arms hovering just above the bare skin of her dragons sides in a loose hold while she focused on just keeping airflow to and from her lungs and the Solar Slayer took the opportunity to inhale the sweet scent of rich honey and vanilla. Her nostrils flared when the scent turned musky at the end; a tinge that pulled a knowing feral grin from her lips.

"That's just plain mean. You know Zen isn't comfortable with socializing just yet. It's not his fault." Cristoff had crossed his arms over his chest to take his little sister and her mate in. Looking at them as a Boscan and strictly a Boscan, they were nearly too beautiful together. Golden hair, both voluptuous and sexy in different ways since Emzadi had already hit the six foot mark and she usually wore a pair of boots that gave hear at least another two inches and trained rigorously despite being the youngest mage present while Lucy held a warm forgiving glow that drew you in standing at a height that will no doubt bring his little sister joy since it was the perfect resting height for her chin. Taking in the look in her eye and the way the corner of her capped incisors were flinting with her own desire, he found comfort in the fact that at least he wasn't the only one fighting the urge to claim his mate in the middle of the strange place.

Natsu's voice was slightly further away than before as he called back to the trio still standing in the rubble from their first sol Viraag prison break. "Uh, something smells...sour? Bitter, maybe? I don't know but it kind of smells like starlight but flowery." His brows were furrowed and his lips puckered just slightly as he thought about the vaguely familiar smell like when you could recognize the artist of a song but not the title.

This time it was the Pradesh's of the group to be left out as they stared openly at the pinkette and his vague nondescript descriptors.

Lucy having reluctantly withdrawn from the warmth Emzadi naturally provided, was tapping her pointer finger on the pout of her bottom lip to pull an amused curling grin from the blonde watching her from her brother's side as she puzzled through her partners word choices. With a bright ' _ah hah_!' and a pointer finger to the sky, she brought her hand down in a fist in her other palm as she spoke confidently. "Erik would fit the first and last bit, not the starlight part, but how in the name of Mavis would he have gotten to the book?" Her own analysing pulling her brows together. She really wanted to go on a mission that didn't end up being a front for something far more complicated.

Both Cristoff and Emzadi had looks the gave the impression of just how impressed they were that Lucy just pulled that from what the pink-headed slayer just said because it was incredibly impressive. Either Natsu used scent identifiers often enough that she remembered the specific scents that went with which person or she also had an improved sense of smell, something that wasn't likely given her magic. They had overheard the stories from Kaleb about the blonde being behind Fairy Tail's rise to the number one guild in Fiore, but it was way more fun to see the unorthodox mages in person.

Scrunching his nose, he shook the scent off before giving a special wild smile he only donned when he was about to smash the smithereens out of something and half-growling out with no threat behind his words, "Get outta the way Luce and we can find out!"

Jumping out of the way and into the pillowy bosom of her mate just in time to miss the first flaming punch as it connected with the solid wall, she nuzzled her nose deeper into the warmth and quickly understood the appeal of a generous set of boobs and happily ignored the destructo-force behind her in favor of the gorgeous woman showering her in attention. Emzadi's smile grew wicked only for a moment as she felt the tickle of Lucy's breath against the sensitive skin of her cleavage before making the split second decision against knocking her brother's pink-headed wrecking ball out before the overzealous idiot did more damage than good in favor of running her fingers through the golden silk of Lucy's hair. Shooting the daydreaming marshmallow of a man of a brother she had a look to say 'get him or I will' to snap him from his puppy-love drooling moment at what could have been the small mages lithe muscle or energy or the way his ear twitched when he fought. It could have been anything with the big sap. Not that Cristoff didn't deserve gushy, sappy moments, Emzadi just preferred they happen when **his** mate wasn't about to maim whatever poor souls happened to be standing behind that wall when he broke through.

Pantomiming his own heartbreak at her cruelty towards the sweet blossoms of true love out of good-natured play between siblings, the Lunar Slayer simply walked up behind his fiery, borderline maniacal, mate and whispered something seemingly harmless into his ear from just behind his back.

His simple method was so effective, the sudden quiet followed by a soft ' _you can?_ ' from the Fire Slayer had his fellow Fairy _concerned_ enough to flip her body around while staying in the warm confines of Emzadi's extremely well built arms that perfectly matched the set of abs; both of which spoke of her goddess' devotion to some sort of workout regime that made her look so toned and powerful. Her brow raised in question as she felt a soft weight on the top of her head where Emzadi took to resting her chin on the top of her head as she felt the slayer behind her wind their fingers together at their side in a move the Celestial Mage would have though pretty forward before having spent the only the last twenty minutes conscious of the woman's presence at all until she heard soft humming coming from behind and Emzadi started to sway. Then all Lucy could focus on was how her sun goddess just kept getting better and better.

Just as the pair of dragons found a groove with safely taking the wall down, the final piece of a block fell away just in time for Gajeel to bellow through the dark hole, " _GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY,_ " before they heard an intake of breath so deep it could only mean the Iron Slayer was about to let a roar out with the four of them right there in front of him so whoever was inside his mate-cell, must not be very pleasant. Come to think of it, they might actually be so pleasant Gajeel needed to run away from the sweetness of it. That was also a possibility with the Iron Slayer.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, tightened her grip and hoped for the best of what was about to be a wholly unpleasant experience when two things happened instead to make her _very_ happy about meeting Bickslow's younger brother, in this order: Cristoff very gently, soothingly asked Gajeel when the last time he slept was followed by the distinct noise of large muscle bound ironhead hitting the floor.

Peeling one eye open to see no damage was done, she was about to give the Lunar Slayer some serious props for his swift and nonviolent solution to the problem when she then felt Emzadi press a kiss to her cheek before whispering for her to keep her eyes closed tight and walking up to the wall with her hands on either side of the hole. Lucy only just barely shielded her eyes before a flash made her vision white out for a few seconds.

Those were the last few seconds of peace the four of them would get for a while.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Meanwhile in a room lit by the eerie green glow emanating from a different member of the Pradesh brood, Bickslow had stopped his absent whistling to cock a brow over at his cellmate, "Do you think we should do something more productive?" Meaning more than just sitting around in the random room the two Fairies found themselves plunged in after Bickslow touched the book he had put Momo in.

Having heard the raucous barrage that was the Fire Slayer's soul even through the thick stone, Cobra gave an even but curt, "Give him a few minutes, I'm sure they'll aim him our way sooner or later," without lifting his head from where it was leaned back against wall. The Poison Slayer was less than thrilled at being in a closed space with the Seith Mage after managing three months without actually looking at the towering man. Cobra had already known Bickslow was his mate and had been doing his best to keep the blunette playboy from knowing.

Seemingly completely at ease with the cryptic response, the light from the blunette's eyes brightened for a moment before his helmet floated up from the floor to signify his transfer of souls.

Letting out a barely audible breath of relief, Cobra listened to the loping symphony of souls Bickslow was the maestro and heartbeat of as he pulled trinkets and random carvings from his endless pockets for his babies to fill for the time being.

The Seith Mage was worried about whether or not his soul was okay after being ripped from Magnolia to the dungeon they found themselves trapped in as he cooed to half carved lizard floating just beside his face. "Everything good, Momo?"

The Poison Slayer closed his eyes and focused on the layers of souls that resonates perfectly with the Seith Mages steady soul. It was the only thing that stopped his headaches from becoming overwhelming so the last three months of avoiding him enough to keep from killing him and his annoyingly boisterous ways and staying close enough to not kill himself and the nagging insistent voice that was his own dragon soul was extremely hard. Hard enough to admit to himself at least that this was actually really pleasant. Cobra was actually enjoying the quiet just being near Bickslow again.

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~How you digging the pairings so far? I know I have a bunch of OC's so if you have any questions or anything, just shoot em to me and I'll answer as best I can.

 **I hope y'all have an absolutely amazing day, dirty souls!** ~


	3. Chapter 3

~ I'm in the middle of packing for a month trip back home so I'm posting this before I get to into something and forget. Which would be a crime.

I'll have a little a/n at the end my loves!~

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It was disorienting few minutes of Levy's life when she finally finished dishing her obvious ire at the dragon supposedly leading this mission out to the bullheaded blond they called a guildmaster and lifted her hairband out of her eyes back in place only to be met with the same blinding pitch black darkness. _That_ had her panicking about actually going blind before she wrote out some fire to light the little room up.

Only to then to have the _bejesus_ scared out of her well enough to think she actually had _died_ in those first few moments she caught sight of the looming build of a barbarian-looking tree-dweller with metal face mask so simple and crude succeeding in hiding the entirety of his face including the color of his eyes because the damn thing only had two slits for eye holes, a fitting cape made from incredibly long and thick fur succeeding in hiding absolutely nothing save what was sure to be a gruesome set of neck muscles to match the rest of his hulking body criss-crossed with ancient markings resembling modern day Encan tribal tattoos before realizing he was only wearing a few pieces of armored leather around his waist to leave him mostly exposed even in what was sure to be **all** his armor before she felt her face heat to levels that threatened total meltdown before the _gigantic brute well matching Bickslow in height_ put his outstretched hand out as if telling her to wait and using his other hand to pull off his face plate. Taking in the mans literal mane of earthy hair tangled with braids, bindings and what looked like _bones_ of some sort, the rugged quality to his roughly carved features and the unkempt look of his full beard, her face remained unchanged from the look of imposing terror set in stone on her adorable pixie face. First rule of teleportation, don't trust the monstrous stranger trapped in the tiny room with you even if he does take his creepy mask off.

Clearing his throat nervously, her brows furrowed deeply at the sound as she grew even more suspicious of the man as she watched a blush of all things cross his cheeks before his deep booming voice nearly knocked her teeny frame over with the unintentional power behind it. Did she hear...fear in his voice? "I'm not gonna hurt you! My name is Azool Tirel and I'm a dragon slayer. Please calm down before you hurt yourself, I promise, I'm not going to hurt you." Seeing her face drop into something more akin to displeased disappointment, somehow he figured that was a step up from him being a lunatic giant creeping in the dark and waited for her to get used to him.

"Dragon Slayer of what exactly?" Her tone was tight lipped to match the fierce look in her appraising eye. Her close friendship with the Iron Slayer over the years had given her all the push she needed to develop quite the backbone. It was that or constantly just sit back and take his shit which wasn't about to happen.

Scratching at the thick hair covering his jaw nervously, her waved his faceplate in front of him as he answered in a roundabout sort of way with a wobble to his words as if she was making him nervous, "Well the thing of it is...it's kind of hard to put a finger on what I'm the Dragon Slayer of. Technically, my dragon's name was Honoa and he _could_ be simplified down into category of nature if I really had to put in one word."

The blunette mage was trying her best to move passed the name Honoa. There was no way he had actually said Honoa. The Honoa Isles were just a legend within a legend and even more impossible than the phenomenon that was the Devil's Triangle in the waters at the tip of Sin, Pergrande and Enca that's never been seen or charted in the flesh. Even more off-putting than that little tidbit, she was entranced by the motion of fingers and the contemplative look on his face enough that she could feel her core flicker to life with just that little move. Unnerved by the involuntary reactions her body had to the mindless gesture drawing her gaze along the chiseled line of his jaw and the sexy rugged look that kind of actually worked for him. The flash of heat brought out in her lower abdomen by that particular train of thought was especially nagging. She shook the feeling before reining in her thoughts long enough to rationalize that he looked genuinely unmotivated to ravish and/or murder her and offered her name in return. "Levy McGarden, Solid Script Mage. Which island are you from?" Dipping her chin to motion to the pale ivory markings on his deeply tanned skin in Encan patterns unlike any she's ever seen and Kekoa was _covered_ in them. From neck to ankle. She was more than a little hunger for answers from the newest Dragon Slayer in her life.

His surprise at her calling out his island homeland was evident in the way his mossy eyes widened before stuttering out his answer, his eyes tracing the jagged lines of his tribal markings coming out from under his bracers from his final ceremony before leaving his home. "That obvious, eh? I'm from one of the smaller islands, Ne'wakea." Impressed that she had mind enough to know about his heritage, he tucked his mask into the wide wrappings of his waistguard before asking a question of his own out of good-natured fairness. "Which mainland are you from? You have the features of one of those prissy Midish girls but the fire of a Mistrellan without the caramel skin."

The smile he was giving her was all smoothe charm as she crossed her arms over her chest and raised her nose just a bit in the air, only slightly self-conscious at being compared to the women of two countries known for their ready supply of beautiful knockouts while she stood there with twigs in her hair wearing an outfit that consisted of her thigh high black boots, a pair of low-slung khaki shorts and her orange bikini with a vest thrown over since it was humid and they were supposed to be traipsing through the forest. Focusing instead on the fact that he had talked down to her like he thought she had never seen a large body of water before. "I'll have you know Fiore makes a lucrative profit from its sea-related dealings and I do not appreciate being compared to those floozies across the sea." They might be known for their beauty but not their brains, of which Levy had plenty she was more than capable of wielding however she needed to.

"I meant nothing of it, lou loto. I haven't a taste for them anyway." Remembering the few times he had dealings with foreigners or other people as at, Minstrel and Midi held the benchmark for wretched womenfolk with their condescending eyes and fifty thousand powdery smelly things adding to the deceivingly pretty packaging.

The tiny blunette was left to staring up at Azool with massive doe-eyes and a heat to her cheeks that made him shift uncomfortably. A awkward beat passed before his fingernails were scratching into his beard once more at her wide stare fixed directly on his mouth. "Are...you keen on getting out of here?"

Giving him a nod of her head, she got the feeling Azool hadn't made a mistake when he called her 'lou loto'. An ancient dialect of Encan she happened to have need of that for one of her early translation jobs and when the casually spoken words were translated directly, meant 'my heart'.

All thoughts came to a stand still as he face dropped into a deadpanned look of staggering _un_ surprise at the massive battlehammer he pulled from his back. The little blunette had the fleeting thought that maybe all dragon slayers were doomed with the task to finding an outlet to all their power and energy by means of physical exertion. After a few swings of the weapon she thought had to be compensating for something.

Levy lost all sense of patience after another half an hour as she asked with an even tone that once again had the Nature Dragon Slayer sweating for the first time since working at the wall. "If you're a dragon slayer and you just called me lou loto, does that mean I'm your mate?" Her posture was relaxed but her knowing brown eyes were narrowed at him, daring him to refute her claim.

Choking down his disbelief at her outburst, he avoided looking over his shoulder as he gruffed out, "Been around a few slayers of you own, have you? Guess that make this...easier." The way he said it gave her the impression that while it made things easier on a practical scale, it wasn't going to help his seemingly timid and meek personality.

"I'm not leaving Magnolia, just so you know. I have a guild."

"I'm not allowed back home so I guess that solves that problem." Another swing of hammer loosened the stones with a reverberating blow cut off any questioning that was to be had at that super interesting morsel of information she'd be filing away for later when it didn't feel as inappropriate.

"What do you eat? For your element, I mean." She might not like the idea of jumping in the sack with a guy she just met but she would still respect draconian customs enough to give it a fair chance at least which meant her putting effort to get to know him while they were trapped here.

Taking him off-guard with her knowledge of dragons once again, his eyes met hers as he leaned on the hilt of his hammer resting on its massive flat top. "I'm a vegetarian which basically covers my elemental needs but any plant or tree will do. Not a huge bush guy; they taste like dirt most of the time. Flowers are the sweetest though and you smell like the best of them." His eyes went wide, not meaning to say the last bit out loud for fear of his tiny angry mate and her reaction.

He was pleasantly surprised to see she had also broken eye contact as her face flushed a delicate pink. His dragon had much louder and more visceral reactions to the sight as he thanked Honoa for the thick layers of leather that hid the evidence of just how much he liked the demure look on his mate. And the way her voice sounded, quiet and soft, as she looked up from beneath her lashes from where she moved to stand next to him, the top of her head below the end of his hilt and his chin, made him weak at the knees. "Do you have a favorite?"

It was a gut reaction to answer her like his dragon already knew the most precious thing he could give her is knowledge enough to satiate her until he could take her to see all the amazing sights and secrets he's found in his nomadic life. "Lilies and roses. The pinker the better."

"The...pinker?"

He gave a grunt as a response before turning and heaving his weapon over his shoulder. "Pinks the word."

"Why?" Wondering what made pink petals so much better than any other color.

"All I know is the pink ones taste the sweetest and the purple ones make my throat itch something fierce," before gently guiding her backwards to take up swinging again.

It seems the Nature Dragon Slayer wasn't at all what his outward appearance portrayed as she watched him pause once more to unclasp the round seal holding his thick cape up to make a sort of nest out of it before motioning for her to sit, his mossy eyes anywhere but on her. "If you wanted to sit while I chipped away at the wall…"

Levy wasn't dumb. She knew what was happening. The dragon part of him was courting her in only way it knew how; by taking care of her and putting her first. Seeing as it was incredibly cold wherever they were and his cape looked so plush and cozy, she easily sat crossed-legged in the material before wrapping it around her shoulders to make the most adorable blue-haired burrito ever, her nose tucked away beneath the heady scent of wet earth and pine to smile up at the towering awestruck brunette. "Thank you, Azool."

This was going to be a very hard time for him if she kept looking at him like that.

XXxxXXxxXxXxXxxXXxxXX

Having never seen anyone melt through solid stone before, both Sting and his fellow Saber Vaara stood in disbelief right in the middle of their usual mid-day round of fisticuffs, her hand buried in his blond hair to get a better grip on the roots, his arm falling uselessly to his sides as a dumbfounded look of awe took up residence on his face to distract them from the fight that stemmed from his own stupidity for blowing out the wall that connected her room to his instead of getting out as if he had checked before blasting through. She probably would have too if she was mated to whoever his mate was supposed to be. She didn't particularly like Sting but he still deserved to be happy far away from where she was.

If the winged, faceless wonder buried under layer after layer of robes in the room Sabertooth's guildmaster rapidly vacated wasn't enough, left in the slow fading light of the opening in the wall Gajeel had been slowly chipping at turned doorway stood a crazy intense looking amazon woman with blonde hair tied back in a pile on the back of her head and orange eyeballs the same shade as the fucking sun. Vaara got the distinct feeling that she did not want be here any longer as Emzadi reassured the room of mages. "Have no fear, friends, we are here to help!"

A familiar feminine tone sounded from beside the voluptuous woman bellowing from the doorway to pull her attention away before Amazon woman disappeared from view completely and instead was replaced by the short curves of none other than Fairy Tail's Lucy Heartfilia.

"Is everyone okay in here-" before she could finish, Sting ripped himself away from the Corrosion Mages clutches with a yelp and made for the safety and softness of the Celestial Mage and Light of Fairy Tail.

Slightly confused at seeing Sting of all people wrapped around her torso, she scratched the back of her head with a small laugh before the White Dragon was stripped from her persons and placed harshly against the wall opposite his room by one jealous Solar Slayer.

Narrowing her eyes at the outright exhausted man, Emzadi raised a single brow before taking his chin in her hand and lifting it up to meet her burning gaze. "I don't share, _little dragon_." As if they were in a greaser movie, Emzadi proceeded to stand to her full height before walking over to where Lucy stood giggling with her hand pressed to her mouth in attempts to stifle the lovely sound with no effect and draped her arm heavily over the smaller blonde's shoulders with a smug grin on her face. Her sleepy-eyed gaze pinned him where he was for a few moments longer before rubbing her cheek against Lucy's temple and refocused on the other three mages left in the room. A small mage with an unusual set of mismatched eyes that reminded her of the tabby that hung around the stable with a shock of bright green hair that reminded her of those 'Mr Yuck' stickers let out the most dramatic relieving sigh just as she stepped over Gajeel's poor slumped body. "Thank god someone shut those two morons up. I really hope someone has a plan to get out of the creep heap because my head hurts, I haven't slept in two days and I'm so fucking done with this whole experience. Thanks for the ride but I'd like my money back."

A rough hand went to rub the back of a salmon topped head as his bright timbre drawled in ways that had Lucy glaring at the Fire Mage. She was the only one awake who knew what that tone meant. Natsu was about to say something no one wanted to hear and he would follow it up with a genuine motion of friendship and plucky go getter attitude and then she would be left to figure out a real way out of this. "Well the thing about it is...I'm pretty sure the only way to get out of the book is by touching the book again."

Lucy's shoulders dropped. Nope. She was wrong. This was much worse.

Cradling her head in her hand as she stepped away from Emzadi, much to the taller blonde's chagrin as an unbecoming frown sprouted on her face growing deeper with each step her mate took away from her and towards what was essentially a group of strangers to her save Cristoff and Lucy and Lucy only got that title despite also being a stranger in all aspects but one very important one because they were mates. "What do you mean we have to touch the book? How can we touch the book that brought us here when we touched it the first time? How could the book even be here?"

"I didn't touch a book," Emzadi offered unhelpfully.

"I didn't either," Cristoff added as he eased Natsu's hand from running himself bald to hold it in his own with a smirk down at the surprised Fire Slayer looking up at him like he hung the stars.

Vaara was not in slightest happy about this revelation as she crossed the hall to at least check on her guildmaster so she didn't have to lie to Rogue when he asked her if she played nicely. "Well I fucking did and Sting must have as well. Though it seems more likely the book up and grew legs and walked over to touch him first." Her eyes sliding sideways to watch his reaction with a glib smirk.

From his position sprawled on the floor, he gave her a look that said 'really?' to match the tone of his next words. "You couldn't save that jab for a day that hasn't been a total shitshow for me? My mate is a mute psycho with wings and no face," pointing to the heap of white and black robes over what honestly could have been a girl or a guy for all the layers and androgynous facial features peeking through the smooth obsidian mask covering most of their face; the only feature you could discern for sure was the pale grey of their expressionless eyes before his other hand pointed to where Emzadi was making little grabby hands behind Lucy's back like a cartoon villain as she crossed over to try and get anymore information from Natsu who was lost in a round of soft _purring_ as Cristoff took to playing with his hair, "and sunny-d just tossed me like a ragdoll. I don't need your pisspoor attitude as well, Vaara."

They remained silent though every single set of eyes was currently boring into the side of Sting's face since the tone he used was actually authoritative. Somewhat. He just flopped backwards with thud as he whispered tiredly behind his palms digging into his eye sockets. "What am I supposed to do with a mate that won't talk to me?"

Lucy looked up at her mate with big brown doe eyes filled with sympathy for the White Dragon Slayer and Emzadi looked back down at her with an attempt to keep up her tough girl-don't touch my mate front before it crumbled into nothing after less than two seconds against a powerful set of puppy eyes like Lucy had with flippant wave of her hand and a huff. "Fine, fine, let's go cheer Sparkles the dragon up." Earning a brilliant smile from her bubbly Celestial Mage as she practically dragged the tall Solar Slayer over to Sting's prone body.

Natsu looked up at Cristoff from just below the Lunar Slayer's chin to ask with an air of seriousness that went completely unnoticed by anyone who knew better from the pinkette. "What do you make of it," giving his chin a dip towards the winged unknown aspect to the whole party; Sting's unnamed and unidentified mate. Whoever it was was buried under too many layers to get a good reading on anything about them but the set of white tattered leather wings neatly tucked against their back gave both dragons a round of goosebumps that didn't sit quite right. Not evil or bad, just corrupt but familiar in a way at its original core.

The raven-haired slayer took a deep inhale and focused but couldn't make anything out aside from a near constant nervous energy growing tighter with each passing minute from the unknown. "I don't know what to make of it besides the fact that we need to get out of here as soon as possible. They aren't going to stay calm for very much longer even with me here."

"How is it that this book managed to get Lucy and Natsu all the way wherever they were and Sting and I-" Suddenly, the Corrosion Mage choked on her own words before hissing out, "Shit. We couldn't figure out what happened to Rogue before Sting started crying for him. He's probably somewhere around here as well."

Gajeel having been content to just stay down while everyone else lived their lives finally piped up from where he had sat up with his legs crossed, his eyes dark and his voice rough with his displeasure. "Shrimps here somewhere too."

Raising her brow as Lucy peered back over her shoulder with a look of genuine confusion. "She wasn't in there with you?" Everyone in Fairy Tail just assumed the one of the two would eventually get over whatever was holding them back and they'd finally admit that after years of telling everyone that they were just friends, they were a couple.

"Does it look like she's fuckin' in there with me?" It was biting and harsh but he had just been forced into taking a nap to sleep through the brunt force of one of Emzadi's attacks head on. He's earned some irritability.

Taking account for everyone present, his mate was the green haired Corrosion mage from Sabertooth named Vaara she had seen a handful of times at the guild and at the new Grand Magic Games as a member of Sabertooth's team and not Levy since Vaara was the one currently lifting and poking at the layers of Sting's mates robes and the Solid Script Mage was nowhere in sight. Lucy conceded with reluctant nod of her head as she tried to think of a silver lining to the news. "Fair enough. At least we know Vaara."

" _We_ don't know anythin', Bunny. I have no fuckin' clue who that is."

"Seriously." Looking at him incredulously because they had just had the fellow guild over for one of their parties and while the new guild hall was large, it wasn't so large that he wouldn't at least remember meeting the girl, "You don't remember her at all."

"Did I stutter, Bunny."

Her palm hit her forehead as she grumbled under her breath about him being an absolute moron before they heard the sound of stone crumbling echo down the hall followed immediately by the victorious heavily accented shouts of a female. "That is so _bloody cool_! I can't believe you actually just did that. Not gonna lie, I thought you were mad there for a tick."

Before a familiar emotionless draw pulled the attention of everyone save Sting's mate since it was one that they _all_ knew. "Can you not do that?"

"Do what?" Innocent and instant.

" _That._ " Insistent and tired. Lucy could just see his face growing more and more tight at the bright lilting chatter of his mate.

They heard a tongue click before who they all assumed to be Laxus' mate drawled sarcastically, "Oh be still me heart, such eloquence and poetry. You really need work on your people skills, babe."

The Lightning Slayer came into view first, his eyes midroll as his hand rubbed down the side of his face with a look that Lucy and Natsu were extremely familiar with, the former having called it in her mind before it happened. Laxus Dreyar was annoyed and by the looks of it, it had everything to do with the orange head of short choppy hair being held back by a pair of circular mechanics goggles poking out from behind him with a mess of freckles and eyes the clearest shade of sky blue. Despite his gruff demeanor towards her, he was still allowing her to use him as a human shield, one of her hands gripping the fabric of his navy button up as her head tilted up towards his face, her voice teeming with curiosity. "Are these your lost children cause if they are, you were very misleading in the number of kiddos you had runnin' around," her brows wiggling playfully only earning the barest hint of a smirk from the blond guildmaster before she took that as a yes and stepped out from behind him fully to reveal a woman about Lucy's height wearing a pair of dirty faded coveralls rolled and tied at the waist with her chest wrapped in what looked to be fresh bandages. Her arms were muscular and defined on display but covered in smudges and grease. It didn't take away any of the impact her crooked, dimpled smile had as she confidently introduced herself with an expert curtsy that raised eyebrows in round at who this dirtball young woman was. "Lady Loriellia Alexandria Bernadotte, Lady of the House of the West and very happy to make your acquaintance."

Raising her head, she nearly burst out in peals of laughter at her own private joke. While that was her unfortunate name and title, she rarely acted as Lady since her father was perfectly capable of keeping the people of the western piece of Iceberg safe and fed. "But please don't ever call me that. Just call me Lola and I'll try to keep from biting you," with a cheesy toothless grin on her face as she looked at each face as they introduced themselves in kind.

Laxus immediately looked to Lucy as he asked point-blank, "How're we doing?"

Taking in a breath, the Celestial Mage tried to summarize as best she could, "Okay so, Levy and Rogue are still missing-"

Laxus interjected, "-and Bickslow."

She repeated a little slower than before but still positive. "Levy, Rogue and Bickslow are still missing but everyone here is safe, healthy and mated. Gajeel with Vaara, Sting with...Sting's mate…" stopping to give the poor pouty Saber another sympathetic smile before turning back towards her guildmaster, "Natsu with Cristoff and Emzadi and I. Which means Cobra's thrown in the mix somewhere unless there are even more dragon slayers out there we didn't know about."

Laxus let that informations all sink in. Two of Bicklow's siblings being mated to Lucy and Natsu. Cristoff being mated to _Natsu_. What kind of gods did he piss off to earn that punishment? Laxus wasn't worried about Lucy and Emzadi since the Solar Slayer wasn't half the trouble her team was though both couples seemed the only ones actually doing a good job at being mated.

In fact, Vaara was staring at Gajeel with a contemptuous look as if this was the first time hearing the news. Which she made clear by means of squaring up to the Iron Dragon Slayer, the platform of her boots making them nearly eye level with each other. "What in fuck does that mean, _dragon_?"

Sting and Natsu let out snickers at Gajeel getting scolded by his mate in front of everyone which were silenced by a Cristoff's soft whispering in his mates ear and the death glare Lucy was shooting the idiot blond who had yet to even get his mates name.

"Tch, didn't know ya were deaf, sweetheart." Smug grin on his face as he caught the way her eyes darted up as she tried to blow her too-long fringe out of her face with an annoyed pout before she stepped closer with her right eye, her toxic eye, narrowed and a cheshire smirk of her own quirked her lip as a blatant challenge.

"Want to know a fucking fun fact, buddy." The dark tone of her voice was teeming with her own exhilaration at going toe to toe with someone unwilling to back down. Vaara didn't give him the chance to say anything before her hand latched around his scarred wrist and his hand started turning a sickly bright orange, the studs flaking away as she pulled him forward to whisper in his ear, "Iron is the easiest thing to corrode. It turns such a pretty shade of orange don't you think _sweetheart_ ," before releasing her hold and shoving the stunned Dragon Slayer back.

Flexing his wrist as the last of the flakes of her magic fell away from his skin, he had to think through what just happened again before realizing he was sporting a very noticeable hard-on and coming to the conclusion that there was going to be no easy living, sunshine and moonbeams bullshit like Lucy and Natsu got for him. For whatever sick reason the thought only made his cock twitch before he let out a groan and shamelessly adjusted himself to ease some of his ache, glaring at the cocky Saber standing right beside him despite having just put a big shitfest about it in the first place.

Emzadi ducked her head to whisper in Lucy's ear quietly, "I totally want to role play that later, sunshine. We'll get you a pair boots like hers and her can yell at me all you want."

" _Emzadi!_ " Lucy loud-whispered to her mate, scandalized but incapable of holding in all her chuckles.

Laxus had been paying attention to the impressive display between Gajeel and his green-haired mate when he heard the unmistakable sound of his best friends cackling laughter, muffled through the stone but close. Having noticed the Lightning Slayer's distraction, his mate strolled right up in front of him and motioned for him to bend down with one hand while the other stayed firm on her hip. Glancing passed her easily since she was the same height as Lucy and hindered his field of vision none, he took in the relatively stable state everyone was in before obliging his little mate who took the news remarkably well for someone of such a high standing politically to duck lower as she leaned her weight on his chest and stood on the tips of her worn boots to meet him as close to the middle as it was going to get. "I'm sure you've noticed already but that person has wings. I've never seen a person with wings before and you make me feel like my life is less in danger so I'm gonna stick with you, babe, 'kay?" It was lighter than he'd have thought possible.

Letting out a few husky chuckles, her set his hand on top of her head before turning her around and tucking her under his arm in a move that made the whole thing much better for Lola all around. In her admittance that she herself couldn't use magic to him before he busted through the wall of their cell, she had unknowingly become the sole object of his dragons affection. She wasn't weak by any means and physically, she was stronger than the majority of Fairy Tail's mages by the looks of her toned and muscular build but it was a sign for him that his mate, his perfect other half, was a regular civilian. Not _regular_ since she had a title and name longer than he had breath for, but a non-mage. He wasn't like Natsu or Gajeel who wanted someone to keep up with their dragon magically; he wanted someone that would always be there when he came home who he would never have to look at from the view of a guildmaster looking at one of his mages. He also really liked that she hung all over him. It's been awhile since he's felt more than a passing touch from his mages and Lola's was better than any he's ever felt before.

"Please tell me someone else hears that cackling because I don't think I can handle it if it's just me." Sting's eyes were peeking over his mate's shoulders, their eyes still unmoving though Natsu was determined to stare into them from across the group until they blinked at least, as the White Dragon's deep blue eyes shifted back and forth down either side of the hallway.

All the other dragon slayer's gave their reassurances that they too heard the cackling and every single one of them could name the source without a doubt. Bickslow left that kind of resounding impression that you could recognize his laughter through a foot and a half of stone.

"He's on the other side of the side of the wall by the sounds of it," was all the Lightning Slayer drawled before giving Emzadi a pointed look to say 'okay kid, get to getting' which she answered by sticking her tongue out and nestling Lucy closer, her arms wrapping around the front of her mate to say 'no old man, my mate is comfortable'.

Unamused, Laxus kept his gaze even as Lola looked between the three mages all with beautiful golden hair and unnaturally unique bone structures with astonishment. Iceberg was a land of a people with dark hair and blue eyes and while her bright orange hair was rarer, blond's were considered the ideal and she was essentially about to marry one which was a huge step up from having to marry some random titled idiot from her mother country.

Bright orange eyes rolled at the ridiculous dad-stare she was getting from Laxus. She pulled her arms high above her head to stretch her arms as she made her way to the part of the wall she heard her big brother through. "Don't worry boys, I'll show you how a real dragon works and I won't leave a mess behind like you oafs do," her voice was playful but sharp in a way that reminded you she could kill you with very little effort at all at the drop of a hat.

True to her word, it took her very little time to get through the wall before beckoning Lucy to her side to see who was about to become her new draconic brother or sister and welcome them to the Pradesh family with a proper intrusive introduction.

When they watched Bix's head of shoulder length blue hair pulled back in a loose bun pop through, his wide smile promising mischief as he noted the presence of two of his siblings, he had started making a beeline for Emzadi since she was closest to him only to have his fiesty younger sister shove his face aside with a toothy grin before saying "I'm waiting," with a familial brow waggle that left him cackling once again since he had no idea why she was waiting. Cobra hadn't told him anything and he had very limited knowledge on what was happening around him and ultimately, to him. His mate hadn't told anyone anything about it. Cristoff was more than happy to accept Bickslow's bear hug since he himself was a connoisseur of sorts on the matter and he missed his big brother.

The instant Cobra stepped foot through the door, Lucy was squished between her mate and the dangerous Poison Slayer as Emzadi started chattering excitedly right in Cobra's pointed ear to earn a cringe and warning growl from the shorter man. "Wow, you are really cute. My brother has mated well and you're so small." He was actually considered on the tall end of the spectrum at 5'11 but compared to freakishly tall giants like Bickslow and his siblings, he guessed that was short. "I bet Bixy-bo just loves watching you give it to him with that broody look and scar."

" **Jesus** _ **fuck**_." Laxus choked in his own shock at the Solar Slayer's complete lack of filter.

Lucy squeaked out from just below his chin to finally have someone to share astonishment with, " _I know, right_?"

Everyone watched to see what the Seith would have to say after an easy set-up like that, especially one very uncomfortable and unhappy maroon-headed dragon slayer.

From where he had one arm draped over Cristoff's shoulders bent to poke at his new little pinkette brother, Bickslow drawled lazily with a wink at the Poison Slayer, "I definitely wouldn't complain about the view." Before his brain rewound his sisters words and he stood straight up with a gleam in his eye that promised hell for Cobra. "Did you just say mated, Em darling?"

Shaking her head of blonde hair at the Poison Slayer, she whispered with a playful smile showing off her fangs, "Naughty, naughty, little dragon," before releasing him and confirming that she had in fact said mated before in regards to the relationship between he and said Poison Slayer.

Bickslow took the three strides over to stand beside his supposed mate to cross his arms over his chest and check out the his fingernails, noticing his left middle finger had a chip out of the otherwise pristine black polish, as he loomed over him patiently.

Cobra snapped from where he was adjusting himself back to normal after the jostling and unwated affection from the blonde amazon dragon. "What."

"You knew we were mates?" It was spoken with false casualness.

Rolling his amethyst eye, he spoke with a candor that would seem harsh to anyone who didn't know Cobra. "Yeah but I was trying to enjoy the peace and quiet of living alone for as long as possible."

Dropping his hand to say 'wow, man', he just stared at his fellow Fairy.

This time, Cobra's voice was a little drawn and tired as he repeated. "What."

Knowing the Slayer knew exactly the reasoning he was waiting for, Bickslow gave him a few pointed blinks of his twisting red eyes to prompt the shorter mage to grumble out, "I was going to tell you."

"Why do I not believe that at all, dude." All smiles after getting the grumpy man to at least show a little bit of remorse for being a dick to the man fated to be his, the Seith swept his surly mate up in his arms with a wide curling smile on his tanned Boscan face to pull him in a deep kiss that almost made Cobra second-guess waiting so long to say something to the boisterous man as he felt lithe fingers brush the sensitive skin of his ears to pull a purr so deep and loud, Natsu actually saw Sting's mate's eyes blink with a howl of victory that went unnoticed by everyone else since this was Bickslow and Erik they were watching make-out like a bunch of horny teenagers.

Whistles and catcalls sounded from everyone save Gajeel, Vaara and Sting's mate at the romantic sweep as Cristoff made a 'gimme' motion to Emzadi before whispering victoriously, "I told you he was a power bottom."

She narrowed her eyes hotly, "I can guarantee that man," pointing to the man her brother was playing an intense match of tonsil hockey with, "would take pleasure in a dick up his ass. Bickslow's dick to be exact. So I'm not giving you jack shit, moonbeam." Crossing her arms over chest in a matter of fact way that had Lucy and Natsu nearly falling over in stitches at the hilarious exchange between the two siblings.

When the two men finally came up for air, Bickslow spent the following ten minutes introducing himself to all the new faces before stopping in front of Sting's mate with a brow cocked as he looked them over head to toe. Just as he was about to try and get a reading on their soul, the sound of stone hitting stone echoed once again and Lucy couldn't help but squeal, "Finally! I wonder if Rogue will have given Levy his cape to keep her warm. I bet he's romantic like that." Lost with hearts in her eyes as she clutched her hands to her chest.

Knowing that Rogue did not smell like dirt and christmas trees, Sting spoke evenly, "Whoever is with Levy isn't Rogue which means-"

"-another Dragon Slayer."

Silence fell over the group as Laxus, Cristoff and Emzadi turned down the dimly lit hall to wait and see who their new dragon was.

* * *

~ Sooooo let me know what you think!

Emzadi and Lucy are giving me life and you all have the amazing 19vanelkc to thank for it. Seriously love, your mind is wonderful.

and Cobra with Bixy is because I love those two and they deserve each other.

If this goes as planned(which things rarely do but I'll keep the illusion up for myself) this story may act as a jumping point for series of smut-shots but I have way too many new character for that to have worked right off the bat XD~

PS Sting's mate has a personality, it just doesn't in sol Viraag for reason YET TO BE NAMED MUHAHAHAHA *ahem* anyway...More to come my beauties!


	4. Chapter 4

~Sorry about the late update! I'll be working on the next chapters as sort of one-shots of our fated couples! I hope you love it!~

* * *

After one final swing, the last of the stone to make a hole big enough for his massive body (seriously, he was 6 foot 6 and with a stocky physique that made Laxus look average at best) to be able to fit through. It took Azool an inordinately long amount of time since he could feel his mates eyes on him with every lift of his hammer as she fired question after question, barely letting him finish his answers before another question filled the space. It wasn't done maliciously so and even seemed genuinely interested in him if a little too enthusiastically. He was already hopelessly half in love with her and they had spent maybe two hours trapped together. Levy was brilliant, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued with a soft femininity about her that drove he and his dragon absolutely _wild_. Funny thing actually since he had been eyeing her lap for a pillow after his little pixie unfolded her legs to cross them in front of her. He couldn't remember the last time he slept with another warm body and hers looked like heaven.

"I think you'll have to take your cape back unless you _wanted_ to collect everything that happened to be on the floor for as long as I have it." Her voice was light as she stood and bent at the waist to try and ball up the heavy mass of fur that she had learned came from a chimera on Ca-Elum. She missed the way his eyes scanned over her body but caught his blush when she turned to ask, "How long ago did you acquire this thing," gesturing to the mass of golden-brown fur she was having real issues trying to move.

"A few years after I left home, so that'll be," leaving his weapon standing upright as he crossed the short distance between them to throw his cape back over his shoulders and hook the clasp in place, "maybe, 15 years ago now."

Levy couldn't keep the shock from bleeding into her face and words as she looked over the rough lines of his face. It testified to the life of a hunter Azool seemed to live alone. "You haven't been home in 15 years?"

His laughter was gravelly and full-bodied as he picked his hammer up and made a motion for her to move to his side. "A little longer but I had plenty of time to learn every inch of Ne'wokoa while I was there and nothings changed while I've been away." He had confidence since his magic was directly related to the archipelago his home was nestled amongst for the easy reason that Honoa, his dragon, had created them from his own magic and part of his soul was tethered there thanks to his family and spiritual connection they had with island. Now that he had proved himself a true dragon by finding his mate, he could finally talk to his dragon again. He didn't know how the ancient grump would handle Levy.

"Are you going to go back?" An innocent question.

"Uhm," his mossy eyes darted around before catching hers for in instant and darting away again, the hand that wasn't balancing his ungodly large weapon shot to his jaw in his usual nervous habitual move to scratch his thick scruff, "I'd have to bring you with me if we- I- in order to go back."

Holy balls, this brute was most definitely nervous around her. This massive, big-boned, barbarian was _nervous_ around _her_. That's actually really cute that the Dragon Slayer of Honoa, slayer of Ishgar's greatest beasts, could take down a chimera but be scared of a girl a foot and half shorter and a hundred pounds lighter. But really, she had always wanted to go the Enca so and a visit to a mythical set of islands sounded perfect. It would take planning sure, but it's doable. Tucking her hair behind her ear, pulling out yet another piece of debris with a roll of her eyes, before speaking lowly as she flicked the twig away from her, "That would be a perfect getaway from winter in Magnolia."

"Yeah?" It was a gruff question but the hope in his eyes was enough to have her give him a reassuring smile.

"Yeah."Azool was a little more than speechless as he watched her happily stroll through the makeshift doorway and out into the dimly lit hall to yell out, "Hey guys," before her eyes narrowed on Laxus' frame and she made for a warpath, ignoring the greetings from the rest of her guildmates and...a bunch of people she didn't know, to stand directly in front of her Master with her arms crossed, waiting in a way that had Laxus thinking all blue-haired people were destined to take things over the top.

Rolling his steel-blue eyes down at her before slowly drawing them up to focus on the quickly growing mass heading right for them, the outline of an uncomfortably large hammer slung casually over his shoulder with his bulging bicep hanging over the handle, Laxus realized he was about to feel very small compared to Levy's dragon slayer. The thought would have bristled him before but not anymore. Now he just wanted to get his over with and get the hell out of this maze of stone.

"Hey! What the heck you jerk!" The blunette was not happy about being rolled over and ignored by the Lightning Slayer.

Lucy's eyes bulged as Levy's mate came more into the light. "Jesus _fuck_ , Lev! He's gonna break you in half!"

"Gihihi, good luck with that, Shrimp." The Iron Slayer was snickering as he sent the blunette a wink that made her whole body heat before glancing over to Lucy and the sleepy-eyed beauty behind her. Both blondes were giving her bright smiles and thumbs up and Levy could practically feel the Celestial Mage's elbow jeering in her ribs despite being yards apart.

Turning to introduce her gentle giant of a mate, she was greeted by the sight of a unreadable face attached to a body free of worry and standing proudly at his full impressive height and he looked larger than life. Totally in his element and Levy had to make sure all the blushy looks and stutters from earlier weren't just hallucinations at the complete 180 degree turn in his demeanor.

"Lightning Slayer." A gruff greeting from the unknown man.

After staring him down for a minute which everyone save Emzadi and Natsu thought impressive since he was probably the scariest looking man they had seen for a good while, Laxus offered an arm and his name, "Laxus Dreyar."

Azool took his forearm in his hand in a modest grip before giving his name in return. "Azool Tirel. Have any of you found the book yet?"

The pinkette Fire Slayer piped up as he came to poke at Azool's beefy arms. "How do you know about the book, monster slayer?"

Cristoff quickly gave his apologies as he lightly smacked his mate's hand away from the other dragon slayer with an easy smile. "I'm Cristoff, this is Natsu and he's sorry for getting in your face."

"No I'm not." Zero remorse in his voice as he looked at his mate with a quizzical pinch to his face.

Azool ignored Natsu's denial in favor of nodding his acknowledgment to the the Lunar Slayer before answering the question. "My dragon never got to meet his mate so he spent most of his life searching for a way to find him; sol Viraag allowed them to be together in spirit as a meeting place. I know a great deal about this place." His face was stern and it gave him an unyielding look of strength and control.

This time, it was Levy who spoke, her brows furrowed as she grumbled incredulously while giving one of his greaves a light kick, "You couldn't have said that sooner?"

"You must have forgotten to ask, lou loto," was his easy response before giving a wave of his hand and the rest of her bits and pieces of nature that didn't belong in her hair fell away from her hair as if taken by a breeze. Realizing what just happened as a shiver shot from the nape of her neck down her arms and spine, she gave him a shy thankful smile and punched down her arousal from the sensual feel of his magic through her hair.

Lucy was just thankful to have someone to get them out of here. Pointing to herself and then her mate, she spoke with a light in her big brown eyes, "Lucy and this is my mate, Emzadi-"

Said blondes voice was playful and bright as she nuzzled Lucy's hair mid sentence. "I love it when you say that, sunshine."

Pushing through her soft laughter at the Solar Slayers absent interruption, "-please tell me you can get us out of here, Azool."

He took a moment to focus around him before he heard another voice through the stone. A quiet mumbling. It drew his thick brows together before he asked, "There are more slayers?"

"Just one more with us, unless you got any more dragons lurking in the halls you want to tell us about." Laxus also wanted to get out as soon as possible so even if there were more dragons, he was getting his nakama home before they added anymore mages into the mix.

While the two seemed to have curt if civilized back and forth, Lucy dragged Levy away to stand just on the other side of Sting's mate to act as a buffer so they could talk since he/she's layers of cloth did wonders for absorbing sound and they weren't going to say anything otherwise.

Whispering with a smug grin on her face, the blonde poked her best girlfriends forehead repeatedly as she spoke. "Tell me everything! Good god, he is big. What is he the dragon slayer of? Look at you blushing, Levy-chan!"

"Shut up!" Levy hissed out as she checked over her friends shoulder to see if anyone (Azool) had looked over to confirm he was still talking to Laxus before relaxing. It only took a few seconds before she burst into girlish giggles. "Lucy, he's so _sweet_ and he gets nervous around me but just look at him. He's all man and muscle and **sex**."

" _Levy_!" Lucy put her hand to her chest, scandalized but extremely happy to be so.

Her eyes went dreamy for a second as she gushed about the massive man. "I thought he was gonna pick me up and snap me in half when I first saw him."

"Understandable." The blonde nodded along.

"But then he got all flustered and he laid out his cape for me to sit on, totally chivalrous. He's Encan from the Honoa Isles. The _Honoa Isles_." Making pointed eye contact with the blonde until her mouth split into an 'o' as the gears started turning.

" _No_ ," was all she could say, a giddy spark lighting in her eye. The Honoa Isles were infamous for being at the center of the Devil's Triangle but it was all speculation since no one could navigate the waters. Instruments would work the way they should and explorers always just ended up getting turned around to end up exactly where they began. It was a one of those things that ranked up there with Atlantis or the ruins in Ca-Elum and this behemoth was _from there_?

"Yes. Look at his markings and armor," putting her hands on her friends and turn her around to peek over Lucy's shoulder and gesture to the thick pale lines crossing over his physique as well as the layers of studded, reinforced leather hanging from a waistguard settled over black wrapping to keep the thick leather from rubbing the thick build of his middle no doubt from using a weapon that looked like it weight roughly a ton. "He said his dragon _**is**_ Honoa and he wants to take me to the island he's from."

"Wow. That's crazy and awesome."

"Okay now that I finally got to share that with you," Levy drew the word out before giving her friend a devious smirk. "How's _your_ _mate_ doing? Hm?"

Lucy was pretty sure Levy's blue eyebrows were going waggle right off her face if she didn't stop making the ridiculous face at her as she let out a dreamy sigh, her eyes landing on the lithe body of her Solar Slayer. "Emzadi is perfect and warm. A little loud and...handsy, but perfect. She's actually Cristoff and Bickslow's younger sister."

Levy gave the tall blonde shamelessly pulling at Cobra's coat another onceover before her attention was focused on the pair of couples that genuinely had Levy curious to the point of confusion. "So Cristoff and Natsu...and Cobra with…"

"Bix, yeah. Poor guy didn't even know until we broke them out."

" _No_ ," Levy drew back, her turn to scandalized.

Lucy easily nodded back. " _Yes._ "

While the two continued to catch up on all their favorite little tidbits of gossip, Gajeel and Vaara had taken to standing with matching looks of general annoyance and disapproval before she finally broke. Giving her eyes a roll as she let out a heavy breath, she gave his boot a soft kick to get his attention. "Hey." Gajeel lifted his head, surprised by the contact but only gave a grunt as his reply before she waved a hand towards Laxus. "He's gotta be a better master than Sting, right?"

"Easily." It was hard not to be better than Sting in Gajeel's opinion.

"Think he'd let me join?"

The Iron Slayer gave her a look that crossed irritation with surprise. Irritation at her confusing back and forth and confusion also from her irritating back and forth. He already hated it. "You'd come to Fairy Tail?"

A smile split her lips as she spoke confidently. "Yeah, Sting's an idiot on his best days and I fucking hate climbing that mountain every damn time I take a job." For some reason her words helped him relax a little from his stiff defensive posture.

Another minute of comfortable quiet passed before she scooted a little closer to elbow his crossed arm, her tone just on the cusp of something that might be considered playful if it hadn't been so dryly delivered. "You wouldn't happen to know anyone with an empty couch, huh?" He was about to answer with his own sarcasm but she interrupted before he could, "Cause you'll probably want to find one if I'll be taking the bed."

"What's that 'sposed to mean, woman?" Obviously not amused with her humor or the implication that she would be kicking him out of his own bedroom.

"Unless you want _me_ to sleep on the couch…" Drawing her brow up as she fought the smirk on her lips watching the easy way he got worked up.

Gajeel scoffed. "Fuck that. You'll sleep with me. _In my bed_."

Oh, she touched a nerve there judging by the warning tone and the daggers he was shooting her. Unable to keep herself from picking, she drew lazily, "And if I don't want to sleep with you in your bed? You didn't even remember me. Takes a girl some time to get over that kind of brutal heartbreak at the hands of her soulmate no less."

His eyes shot away as he tried to come with something to defend himself. "Yeah well…"

"Don't worry, take your time, sweetheart," she blew her bangs out of her eye before leaning her head towards his shoulder and whispering gently, "I'm not going anywhere."

Aija's name was the only thing she got to keep from her life before she was taken and sold into the Pits of Pergrande as a gangly six year old Shinobi Mage. Unfortunately for her, her budding magic was no match against a girl three years older than her and she lost her first match but the pig that bought her had been feeling generous and only took her eyes from her. She was given two months to either die of infection or come back and win. Which she managed to do just barely. That was nearly two decades ago and since then, she had managed to become one of the Champions and earned herself a cushy life at the cost of the lives of her faceless opponents thanks to her learning enough Sound magic to use as a means of sonar in place of her sight. Shinobi Magic gave her a massive boost to her inherent agility and and endurance giving her endless amounts of stamina and magic if she timed her hits just right. As a side effect of her Sonar Magic, she nearly always needed to be talking or humming in order to see so it usually ended up in a lot of one-sided witty banter on her part and a lot of unamused enemies. Oh well. Angry enemies made mistakes and mistakes were easy to predict and dodge. Her hearing was better than most to keep her from running into traffic when she didn't want to keep muttering under her breath. It made people uncomfortable. She had been right in the middle of making her way back from the Pits after witnessing her would be opponent absolutely _destroy_ his for the main event of the night. _That_ made _her_ uncomfortable. She was average height but slim and thankfully, flat-chested enough that they wouldn't get in her way or hinder her fighting in the ring to keep her constantly on the move and living. Her opponent looked like he used girls like her as toothpicks after eating a horse as finger foods. Things were not looking good for her. Her head of long deep blood red hair, the bound ends tipped in deady sharp pointed caps, shook with mirth as she laughed to herself before feeling the floor drop out from below her as she yiped out a curt, "Are you fucking kidding me right now with the floor," before her magic kicked in and her feet curled in on herself as she processed the small size and square shape of the stone room before landing in a perfect crouch, her hand extended as she heard the whisper of a shadow and immediately started muttering. "Oh, no. I'm not doing this. I fought a girl with Shadow Magic and it was a _bitch and a half_ so no. Whoever you are, if you're not here to hurt me, I'm not here to hurt you but you'll only get one good hit in," _Ah_ , there her friend was, hiding up in the corner like a spider, "so you better make it count." Flexing her fingers around a pair of steel daggers, her toothless smile grew wide in the dark as she hoped the guy would be feeling particularly froggy.

Rogue watched in earnest fascination as the woman built for deadly precision turned her head directly at his face. This was unsettling for two reasons and the first was that the room was dark, no light whatsoever which worked to his benefit. The second was the fact that above the controlled savagery of her twisted grin was a swath of stained piece of fabric covering the top half of her face completely to tie her length of hair out of her face. She was blind or arrogant enough that she felt she didn't need her sight. He tried to keep from setting the woman off while she was obviously fresh from a fight herself. Her feet were wrapped all the way up the knees of a pair of loose black pants with a wide waistband, her chest and arms wrapped in the same dirty white wrappings as her feet and eyes with an open sleeveless silk robe the same ruby-wine color of his eyes with the shinobi symbol proudly displayed on the back. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not even certain where here is."

Her blood-thirst subsided as her smile morphed into a lopsided smirk as he slowly approached her, her daggers returning to their hidden home on her back. "Excellent. From what I can tell, it's a stone room without means of a way out. Now if I were a superstitious person, I would say that we just teleported because I can tell you aren't from Pergrande and I'd have recognized you if you were a fighter like me."

That caught his attention. The Pits was an infamously brutal colosseum used for literal bloodsport and the main attraction and events with the most invested into were the gladiator bouts to the death. It wouldn't explain the lines of either side of lips that gave proof of a near constant smile on her face.

"Well, only one way to find out and since you seem to have quite the power tucked away in that pretty body of yours. What are you, like an even 6 foot?" Her voice was clear and ringing but evenly so as a result of her magic.

"If I used my magic in space this small for the power I'd need to take the wall out, it would do more harm to you than the wall and I don't know what's on the other side of that wall but we aren't alone here. One of the other dragons will come." It was only partially true but the part about other dragons coming was true enough. Rogue had taken the time to note the odd symbol in the corner of the book having remembered it from when he was a child and look it up to at least get the name of the strange magic it represented; a type of lost magic called sol Viraag that alluded to throughout draconic history with no real information beyond that. It roughly translated out of draconian to a place for those separated from their heart. Since both he and Sting were unmated and his equal-opposite rarely made it very long into reading reports without needing help, he figured it would take very little time for the blond to find them.

That hopeful thought had been nearly three hours ago and Aija had taken to juggling her daggers with skillful precision as she muttered under breath, having nothing to do with needing to see. "I might have been able to at least loosen a stone by now if I would have known your Master would take this long. Mine's an ass but at least he cares about his investments." Rogue had tried explaining the guild system to her but the only thing that stuck with her was how the head of the guild was given the title Master and she just immediately correlated the two separate meanings if the word for the same and he gave up the argument.

There was a shift in the air that had both heads whipping towards the same spot in the wall before a light completely blinding Rogue but as far as Aija could tell, there was a lot of heat followed by the whoosh of fresh air and brightly spoken, "Rogue? Please tell me you're actually in there."

"I'm in here-"

"Where's your mate," was all the guildmaster was worried about as his head scanned uselessly in the dark of the room for either bodies to appear.

"Mate? As in...buddy ol'friend, ol'pal?" Aija jested from the pitch black of the room.

Rogue may or may not have known how to tell the former-slave that by draconian law, she was his to protect and see to which meant she had no owner and she no longer had to fight for her life and her living, not that she had much trouble with it now but it wouldn't last forever and she knew that. She had made her opinion of her lifestyle apparent in her neverending chatting and she thought she made the best of the situation considering the life expectancy of a mage born in Pergrande is 20 years, 25 if you do well in the Pits so she was rounding up on her benchmark. It seemed like a weird time to interject and say 'not if you bind yourself to me forever through an ancient bond decided by fates'. Fate had put her in that cesspool and taken her sight.

He wasn't fast enough to beat the rich timbre of Natsu's cheery voice as his head poked in above Sting's. "Mate as in soulmate, dragon-making mates. That kind of mate."

Oh how she wished she had eyes to roll now. "Oh really now." The way she said it made Natsu think she actually wasn't asking him anything.

The redhead thought it over like the calculating veteran she was. On one hand, she had just met Rogue but on the other, she actually liked breathing and wanted to keep it up since she was already on an all-time high for consecutive breaths so if this offered her a way to not lose her streak, she'd take it. Being a Champion of the Pits made her very popular with men and women with gold spare and a passing desire to sleep with a killer so it wouldn't be too difficult to fake it til they made it. "What does being your mate mean for me exactly?"

The Shadow Slayer had really hoped to have this conversation someplace that wasn't in front of every other dragon slayer he knew but he guessed now was as good of time as any. "You would live with me-"

"Where is that again? Does it snow there? I've always wanted to see fresh snow…" Her thoughts drifted to the times it did snow when she was young enough to notice but the filth of the city and blood from the fights ruined the crisp white before anyone could appreciate it.

A soft smile split Rogue's lips as he crossed into the dim light coming from the hole as Lucy and Levy poked their head in from the opposite side of the doorway making two more head shaped shadows in the light. "I live on the outskirts at the foot of the mountain Sabertooth's guild hall is built on. The peaks have snow year round and falls heavily around Christmas."

"Yeah, and it doesn't stop," Levy scoffed with an annoyed huff that pulled breathy laughter from Lucy who loved winter and all things within her embrace save the freezing temperature and actually doing things while it stayed below freezing.

"Sold!" The Shinobi Mage agreed readily with a toothy grin as she seamlessly looped her arm in the crook of his elbow before making a dramatically overblown gesture to accompany her 'after you' which was received by a stunned Shadow Mage before she spoke up again. This time a whisper as she ducked her head towards his, her hand taking in the soft material of his robes. "A lady such as myself might take offense to such a boring response." Snapping his eyes to the cheeky grin on her lips and the ease at which she carried herself from being someone who spends most their time boasting about severing arteries or actually doing so. She continued, pulling him forward the same time he finally lifted his head to notice the whole of their party was staring at he and his mate. She might be used to having all eyes on her but he didn't enjoy the weight of it. "So does this mean you're gonna get me a ring? I've never had any jewelry so I think a ring would be a good start. I always wanted to get my nose pierced but I accidentally ripped one those big bull nose rings right out of guy's face with a wicked set of horns and the noise made an impact." Turning her head towards Rogue, "You know what I mean?"

No. He did not know what she meant and he was going to have a really hard time adjusting to her being blind if she didn't _act_ like it as her head tilted impatiently. "I can get you a ring if you wanted, Aija."

"Nothing fancy though." She reassured with a few pats of her hand to his cheek before being pulled into the mob of women while Sting gave his best friend a congratulatory hug for knowing his mates name which pulled the Shadow Slayer's brows together but he was used to the incoherent babblings of his magical counterpart and took it in stride.

XXxxXXxxXxXxxXXxxXX

It had taken them an hour to get settled in before Azool, Natsu and Rogue managed to put all the helpful information out for the rest of the group to try and make something out of it all.

"So what would happen if we kept blowing through walls?"

"Or straight up?"

"Really, any direction will work just as well as any as long as you picked one," Cobra drawled from behind Bickslow's back where he had pretty much stayed while the Seith carried on with his usual extroverted ways with his arms crossed over his chest, Cobra's hands in his to hold him in place as he dozed in and out of light sleep. Cristoff was trying to see if any of Kaleb's Mindreader magic suddenly rubbed off on him to insert all sorts of victory flags with his name on it into his sisters big blonde head as he marked down another point in favor of his power bottom theory. She remained unmoved.

Thankfully, Azool put a stop to that destructive line of thinking before Natsu and Sting started arguing over who got to do what with a firm veto of the destruction plan as a whole and asking who was the first person to touch the book when it appeared. Natsu spoke up only to be shut down by a swift line of questioning that ended in the pile of them being lead back down the hall to the room he and Cristoff broke out of where the book was waiting, back under its spotlight standing on its pedestal and Lucy nearly lost it.

"Seriously? Back on the wiggy-spooky scene?" She crossed right over in front of the book before turning back towards the towering man with the best judgement on the topic with a determined look in her eye that had Emzadi letting out a girlish sigh as Vaara and Gajeel looked between the pair with matching looks of disgust.

Sting had been scooting closer to his mate gradually throughout events of the night and had managed to get the toe of his boot under the edges of their robes so he was feeling particularly good as his darted over to his mate before fixing them forward missing the instant their dove grey eyes flitted over to him, taking in the earring dangling from his ear before flitting back.

"I would say you could try it," Levy was developing an addiction for the absent way he scratched his beard when he talked, "but I'm not sure where you'll land. It's a fifty-fifty shot to land wherever you were when you touched the book."

" _The mine_ ," she hissed as she glared at the book out of the corner of her eye.

Emzadi spoke easily as she sauntered up next her mate and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "But _I_ was on vacation somewhere sunny and tropical, my little gold nugget, and I'm willing to play those odds if it means getting a taste of you on the other side," before boldly smacking the book and disappearing once again.

Vaara immediately grabbed Gajeel's shirt in her fist and asked on the way towards the book, "Where were you?" Meaning when he disappeared.

Understanding what she meant, he gruffed out, "Still in Fiore."

The Corrosion Mage gave a shrug, "Good enough for me," before she followed the Solar Slayer's footsteps and the two of them disappeared. Next came Cristoff and Natsu at Bickslow's insistence as a big brother before he and Cobra followed suit. Then came Rogue at Sting's insistence that 'he go first' before apologizing to his mate for how messy his office was with an almost shy kind of blush as he rubbed the back of his head and touching the book himself to leave Azool, Levy, Lola and Laxus all standing around the book with their arms crossed and stern expressions on their faces that didn't read as upset, just evaluating as Levy broke the quiet. "How well do you think that went, _Master_?" Her tone was good at hiding the sarcasm beneath her words.

His response, "It'll be a miracle if they're all in Fiore."

Azool coughed nervously as he pointedly did not make eye contact with his unknowing mate. "You've got to worry about dropping back in the thick of it in Ca-Elum."

"What were you doing there?" She admonished with wide eyes.

He rolled his shoulders as he adjusted his grip on his hammer. "I heard a rumor about a hydra."

"Really now? That'll be right good fun," Lola encouraged wholeheartedly before leaning her face up toward Laxus' as she leaned into the bulk of him, "Right? You mage lot love that kind of thing, yeah?"

Knowing Levy (yes, he remembered her name after a constant back and forth of 'Lu-chan!' 'Levy-chan!' for passed hour) would absolutely not like that, he gave his mate a firm nod of his head before smirking. "Absolutely, we do."

Before the blunette could get her choice insults locked and loaded, Azool let out hearty chuckles before setting his closed fist gently on the cover to have the pair disappear.

His little orange ball of energy wiped at her nose thoughtlessly before beaming up at him, "Well, what'dja say we go for quickie, babe," before winking her beautiful clear eye and reaching her hand out to brush the cover, a genuine smile quirking the edge of his lips at the lilting play in her words.

* * *

~I'm so glad you guys like the OC's. I was nervous about putting them in but then this kind of started as a silly piece and now its like a real one XD

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH YOU LOVELY PEOPLE for your words and support. Seriously. You da bomb dot com. ~


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